Lips, Unzipped is a space for self-expression and open dialogue. It is a space where one can unlock inner thoughts and ideas and delve into the deeper world of conversation and innovation. Unzip your lips and hear the magic revealed through the art of communication.
Waters is brilliant. Sure many of his movies are absolutely disgusting, but that's the point. To go where no one else will (publicly) go.
I enjoyed watching A Dirty Shame because it addresses our sexual fears of abnormality head on. Waters doesn't apologize or try to hide weird human sexual practices in any way. By making them over the top and absurd he creates a space for people to actually explore their own sexualities knowing that whatever they do can't possibly be as weird as what was seen in that movie.
Just like in the abortion-themed movie Citizen Ruth, (dir. Alexander Payne) this movie does a powerful job of revealing how both sides, the prudes and the sex addicts are just down right ridiculous.
Though many of his films are hard to watch because of their grotesqueness I still find them important in the overall scheme of sexual acceptability. He does a great job of riding the line. Of just throwing it all out there. Of being completely filthy, rotten, nasty, perverted. And we need that. As a prudish uptight society, we need to let it out a little bit. Perhaps a lot.
All I know is that it was nice to watch a film that didn't fit into the generic prince and princess sunset escapism romantic comedy crap. And I'd really like more films (including other directors/writers) to push these boundaries.
Movie goers should start a revolt. No more blood until we see some cum. Okay. Maybe we shouldn’t go to that extreme but isn’t it messed up that we are constantly being bombarded with people blowing up, getting shot, getting mutilated in one way or another but we still can’t see a hard dick? Why are hard dicks only allowed in pornos? What makes them so freaking special that they need to stay covered up all the time? Many of us probably think they look funny because we don’t see them on a regular basis. When we were teenage girls it would have been helpful to know what we were potentially going to get involved with.
Yet, I’m surprised more men don’t have complexes. Every time a man gets a hard on in the movies it’s for comedic effect. He’s in public, next to the girl he likes and he doesn’t want her or anyone to point it out, ba ha ha. It’s his little (or big) secret. Shouldn’t men get embarrassed when they get hard? Everyone I’ve ever met never has, so what’s the deal.Is it because it’s never seen it becomes some holier-than-thou, sitting on a pedestal organ? Men seem to really prize their cocks yet men in Hollywood want to keep them all a secret for bedtime fantasies.
And wouldn’t we all have different movie star crushes if we could know… or wouldn’t there be different movie stars because of it. And if not different movie stars at least a few well-endowed stand-ins could get a paycheck.
All I know is that I’m really tired of this puritanical aesthetic. We can show murder after murder, war after war, but when it comes to pleasure, watch out world, what an offense. Would it really be so wrong to show a woman having multiple orgasms or a man ripe and ready for a sensual evening? I guess if the media showed people having more pleasure they wouldn’t be able to rip people off with their fear mongering as often, and we all know what a killing they make scaring people into buying shit. Scaring people into conforming consumer machines. Scaring people into being scared of a natural human occurrence, a natural hard dick.
Check out my NEW awesome green hat, knit by the amazing Allison. Get your own or something like it by checking out her etsy page Perknitious, click here to enter and shop!
I, like millions of others, saw the movie Inception (Christopher Nolan) over the weekend. Ryan and I barely go to the movies because we’re too frugal but the summer heat had about cooked us and we needed to cool off. I enjoyed Inception because it was a thinker film, I even enjoyed the moments during the film in which I was in a state of WTF because that rarely happens. In any case, the next day I was watching the TV show At the Movies where they review, discuss etc. and one of them talked about the director’s lack of really tapping into the subconscious and irrational state of dreamland.
So here’s my argument. The dreamer in this film was an architect, a rational minded architect. The dreamer recreated and rebuilt reality inside the subconscious. Thus the strange scary experiences that usually happen during dreams didn’t in these particular cases because they were set-up dreams, not just wanderings. For example, take the movie The Cell (Tarsem Singh) in which Jennifer Lopez enters into a little boy’s mind and then later a deranged sociopath. These scenes were fucked up and frightening because she was just diving right into their subconscious trying to figure them out psychologically from the inside.
I’ve always been drawn to the surreal imagery of The Cell, but I completely understand Nolan’s choice to limit the scope into a more reality-based play on physics and time as opposed to also adding another element of the overtly surreal; it was already deeply layered and slightly confusing and I do not think it could have handled having snake-monsters, flying jellyfish, shape shifting vampires, palm trees made of candy, etc. Though maybe in another like-minded film that isn’t so action-based and can play around in the creative realms of the mind a bit more. I felt like the worst scene was the third layer of the dream, the snowmobile action scene. Out of everywhere they could have went, could have designed, they went there? It seemed to lack imagination both in the design but also in the basic director's choice. At that point, and perhaps because it was nearing the end, I was a bit disappointed as I felt it fell to easily into a stereotypical action sequence instead of a mind-altering thrill extravaganza.
But in any case, I am looking forward to the continuation of these ideas through film, perhaps aA “Cell-Inception” combo movie. I’d be down with that. But for now, I would recommend people go check it out, even if it’s just to get out of the heat for a couple of hours.
I read an article awhile ago in the spring edition of Bitch Magazine. The article was about aging being “the ultimate cinematic horror” which is often played out literally in film. The article gave many examples and as a person who subscribes to Netflix I added them to my queue. Then I forgot I had added them.
A few days ago we received and watched the movie Dead Alive (1993) and OMG I wish I could turn back time. I am visually scared for life. I have seen graphic, disturbing movies before, but this is the all-time most grotesque, violent, bloody movie I have ever watched. I cannot believe there was no mention of how brutal and unsettling this film was. The article talked about how the mother Vera was the symbol for the destructive forces of aging but it forgets to mention how all the people get turned into zombies and how all the zombies eventually get destroyed—both of which are beyond sickening (skin tore off from body, limbs torn off from skin, zombie-baby in a blender, zombie-baby flies out of blender, but don’t worry—some other zombie’s head makes it in the blender for the ultimate shake, there is an zombie attack with a lawn mower that rips a multitude of bloody bodies across the screen, etc.).
I used to make light fun of my mom for always having nightmares after scary or even slightly thrilling movies, but I think if my mom saw this she’d have a heart attack before the movie even really began. My goddess. I mean seriously.
I had a nightmare afterward. It was about a soul-salesman. He worked for the devil. His job was to sell the people in hell’s souls to people on earth. I guess he could sell the whole soul or parts of it. In any case, he kept trying to get me to buy this one dude’s particular soul. I kept saying no, he kept insisting. Then the soul-salesman showed me the dude and I almost had a heart attack myself in my dreams. The dude was black, neckless, with a smushed, disproportioned face, he had blue eyes that bulged out of his sockets and were glazed over with white like marbles. And he kept staring at me with those creepy fucking eyes. The salesman kept hassling me. I kept shouting NO. I don’t want his soul. Leave me alone. It was rather annoying. And even after waking up I kept seeing the image of that guy. And I don’t really know what it means, but I just wanted to warn you all that soul-salesmen are out there.
If you see this movie it will fuck you up for life. If I could go back and take away those visual disturbances I would not hesitate for a moment to do so. I do not recommend this movie if you enjoy eating food, if you enjoy seeing more than just the color red when you watch films, or if you enjoy looking at people with their skin completely on their bodies.
I agree with the Bitch article author about the horrors of aging, I mean that theory is quite obvious, but I would have greatly appreciated more of a warning regarding the major puke-factor that this movie could bring its viewers. And all the nightmares that will potentially follow. . .
I've been watching season 3 of Mad Men. I'm also taking a pop lit./teaching cultural studies class and we're currently on the topic of media and technology. So I'd like to take a moment to critically examine.
If you've never seen the show it's set in the early 60s and is about a group of advertisers and all their drama in and outside of work. There is a lot of philandering, an excessive amount of cigarette smoking, drinking drinking and more drinking.
Because it's set in the past they get away with an over indulgent amount of misogyny--that, let's face it, the show can always run back to and claim--well that's just the way it was. Same with the racism and homophobia. Showing "how it was" would be fine, except that their is so much glamour and allure to the show; setting it in the 60s gives it this nostalgia that makes me want to go back there--so I can smoke and drink excessively and wear interesting dresses. The glamour overrides the actual craptastic way most people minus white middle class privileged men lived.
Even though most forms of media set up this idea that monogamy is best, all of the married men and many of the women cheat, some cheat constantly. The characters are so complex that even when you hate one thing they do--you can't help but sort-of, deep down still like them. Even Pete who is a complete twit. And Don, who, show by show, is turning into a mega-asshole. The creators are still able to humanize them.
Yet what does that humanizing do for the audience, an audience watching the show more as consumers, soaking it all in, eating it all up. One of the articles I read talks about the masses looking to film and television as a means for distraction, not concentration. That film and television give no room for the imagination, they fill everything in for you and you never have to think about what you're being told. So, people see image after image of philandering, excessive drinking, white men treating the rest of the world like their toilet and what do the masses actually do with this information? They just absorb it-- they allow it to be the way it was without giving it any more thought, without going, well why the fuck was it like that, how much of that bullshit is still happening today, and what can I do about it?
It's called critically thinking and it would be wonderful if the masses were taught at a young age how to do it, but parents love creating a hierarchy so they can boss their tykes around until the tykes are old enough to go out into the world alone and become complete fuck-ups who eat McDonalds and think The Bachelor is a great show. And thus the oppressions continue because very few people want to take the time and effort to look beyond what is handed to them.
I like Mad Men, don't get me wrong, but I understand some of the ways the show shapes our perceptions of the past, the present and the future. And I don't want to get stuck in the trap of accepting anything for the way it was, the way it is or the way it could be.
I had to read a lot...out of all the books I read for my degree here are the 10 I liked (or learned from) the most!
10. The Creation of Patriarchy by Gerda Lerner In depth history on how all the cocks thought they’d take over society. It can be a bit dry at times (no pun intended) but the information is revealing and makes our lives make more sense. “The contradictions between women’s centrality and active role in creating society and their marginality in the meaning-giving process of interpretation and explanation has been a dynamic force causing women to struggle against their condition,” (5).
(I also have an extra copy if any one wants one.)
9&8. A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid and Bandaneras by Dana Frank These books will make you never want to go on vacation or eat a banana again, but they are must reads, why must you read them? They’re about working-class people, people just like you, trying to survive, yet somehow managing to get fucked by “the man” in more than one way. It’s also important to think about where your food comes from. And it’s important to think about the people you affect when you go on a “tropical” vacation—it’s a inner dilemma to have with yourself—the people on those islands now depend on tourists, yet the tourist have destroyed their sense of culture and community, turning stable islands into capitalistic trap-holes.
7. Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi A beautiful, hilarious, heartbreaking story. And it’s done comic-book style making it a quick yet thoughtfully executed read. It’s amazing how relatable the characters are even though it’s set in a different cultural context. It shows the connectedness of us all, yet at the same time, shows the individuality of a specific location and that place’s issues.
6. The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol Adams “The male prerogative to eat meat is an external, observable activity implicitly reflecting a recurring fact: meat is a symbol of male dominance,” (33). The book links animal and women’s oppressions. Breasts. Thighs. Rumps. Juicy. Meaty. Yum. Want a piece. I bet you do.
5. Women Who Run with Wolves by Clarissa Pinokla Estes It’s about getting in touch with your natural selves through understanding our own psychological myths and stories. The book is structured so as to introduce a fairytale/myth in each chapter and have each chapter go into the mind of a woman---discussing the woman’s strength and overcomings throughout each scene. The book is impactful in its ability to conjure creativity and allow one to find one’s self again “A single creative act, has the potential to feed a continent,” (299).
4, A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey “Neoliberalim is in the first instance a theory of political economic practices that proposes that human well-being can best be advanced by liberation individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterized by strong private property rights, free markets, and free trade, (2)” This is a difficult, stuffy read, but knowledge is power and this text is full of it. Want to understand our economy better? Want to know all about corporation corruption and bullshit privatizations…read this book.
3. The Male Body: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body by Susan Bordo This degree did not just focus on femininity but masculinity as well. There seems to be a masculine crisis going on that very few people seem to want to talk about… but hello if we’re searching for a more egalitarian-type life we have to understand balancing the feminine and masculine and knowing the positive and negatives from both sides. Bordo does an interesting job revealing the default male and showing how the male negotiates through our system. They may be born into a certain privilege that comes with being male, but with that privilege comes a certain type of behavior they must live up to, and for many it’s not easy nor is it a path they really want to go down.
2. Learning to be White: Money, Rave and God in America by Thandeka It’s good to know your own history, white or not white, understanding how racism developed over time in our country and how we are all personally affected by it throughout our childhood years of picking and choosing sides as well as how it became inherent in our culture. “White shame is the feeling that something about the self is racially beyond the pale. What is actually beyond the pale. however, is not the discovery of a drop of black blood in one’s veins. Rather, the darkness revealed with the white self in a realm of feelings if dismay, distress, loss, rage, and anger at one’s own white environment because it prevented the self from retaining a fuller and more inclusive range of its own sentient feelings,” (75).
1. Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldúa Seriously the most inspirational book I have ever read. I could read this book over and over again. I think I have underlined almost every sentence. Talk about intersectionality—this book covers the interrelatedness of almost all our plaguing issues from women’s personal struggles with the power already within language (and the patriarchy) to race, to religion/spirituality, to art and creativity, to writing (revealing how she deals with getting it all out). “ To write, to be a write, I have to trust and believe in myself as a speaker, as a voice for the images. I have to believe that I can communicate with images and words and that I can do it well. A lack of believe in my creative self is a lack of believe in my total self and vice versa—I cannot separate my writing from any part of my life. It is all one, “ (73). Sometimes when I’m down all I need to do is pick up this book, read a few pages, and revive my energy. It is like my bible. I have yet to find a more meaningful book.
Can I just say that besides Patti Smith being a rock 'n' roll legend, she is also a goddess. Her Hopefest show February 20, at Park West was one of the most genuine concerts I have ever been to in my life. I have never seen an artist so well known that exuded so much sincerity. Perhaps I have been going to the wrong shows, but it is my true belief that honest, change-the-world-passion is a rare gem amongst creators, especially people who have been in the business so long. Most of the older artists I've seen have portrayed a sense of soullessness and the younger artists aren't getting to the depth I need. It is just so great to see someone who has been through a lot of shit, especially all the political history, and still have idealism embedded in her performance. She has made me not want to give up. To power-through even when the world is shit. To just keep using words to make my point, to create at all times because that's the way to survive.
"I awakened to the cry that the people / have the power to redeem / the work of fools upon the meek / the graces shower it's decreed / the people rule
There is something really great yet something really really repulsive happening in this 1971-movie staring Jack Nicholson, Candice Bergen (Murphy Brown) and Art Garfunkel.
What I found compelling in this film was the relationship between Jonathan (Nicholson) and Sandy (Garfunkel); they had, what you would call today, a bromance that lasted decades; or what 13-year old girls would say, they were BFFs…best friends forever. They truly went through their entire adult lives together.
Jonathan and Sandy’s conversations felt so realistic and raw to me that even though they were laced with sexism what they were saying seemed too true to their characters to get overly offended.But then of course, I got offended.
True, the relationship between John and Sandy was compelling, and true, it had elements of intensity and passion that moved the story line forward especially in regards to John backing down on his love for Susan (Bergen) to keep his friendship and love of his friend.
But, I could not get over the invisibility that existed when Sandy married Susan and Susan completely left the frame of the movie. I know, this was the director’s choice, but it completely pissed me off. Susan was going to become a lawyer; Susan was a bold, independent, and intelligent woman who chooses to marry Sandy and who then chooses to become a homemaker instead? Ah, hell no. And Susan did not just become a homemaker, but a completely invisible character from that point on, as if she was only property, as if she no longer could speak for herself. And I guess, she obviously couldn’t since we never heard her again. Susan also became a metaphor, a symbol of the “cage” in which Sandy was trapped. Her absentness creates an invisible prison of Sandy’s mind and body, as if their marriage is a completely destructive force.
It was disgusting. Her lack of voice upon marriage is what made the movie unbelievable and undeserving of continuing forward. I really wish it would have ended right when John and Susan break it off, because at least then I could have imagined all the different possibilities, but instead I was brutally forced to witness the complete womanizing of these two bromancers from that point forward.
The film did an amazing job of showing the complexity of these two men, as bffs; making me hate one of them one minute, then hate the other one instead the next. But it truly missed the mark by shutting Susan up—how can someone who was such a main character at the beginning of the film basically be killed off by a wedding ring—she was someone I really wanted to see, I wanted to hear, I wanted to know what happened to her. Because to say she wasn’t vital to the story-line is completely incorrect. Would she have been better off with John, would it have saved everyone’s future if they would have just come out with their secret affair when it was happening—I believe that was the point to be shown, no matter what path, it’s always going to be rocky and it’s never going to be what you want.
The concept was great; the execution of the concept was what was repulsive. So, perhaps the next one can make a similar point without objectifying women. Because in truth, women have just as much knowledge of the carnal, even married women and we, as viewers, should get just as much of their perspectives and voices exposed to us as we get of their bare breasts.
Throughout a year I often feel as if I am not doing anything productive or that I am wasting time etc. So. I decided to review my year and reflect on what I've accomplished. (Perhaps next year I won't freak out so much...)
After a year of working for an evil corporate enterprise I quit my job.
This was vital to my spirit and though I am now living off of student loans, savings, and my parent’s support I no long want to slit my wrists every day.
Completed Master’s Thesis Project: Recorded and released Pervertable Tongues’ debut album Syntactical Makeover
This has been one of my greatest accomplishments so far. I found the actual process of this project vital to my continuation within any type of creative work. For starters this was a collaborative project with Ryan, as well as a representation of my Women and Gender Studies knowledge. I had to learn to balance. To compromise. To push through. I had to overcome my lack of confidence and believe completely in myself and what I wanted to say.
Upon the release Pervertable Tongues started playing live shows.
This has been amazing so far. I love the people we’ve been playing with, the other bands we’ve met, the fans—upon reflection, I just wish we could do it more and do it in more places. I would love to go on a tour in 2010—we’ll see!
I Completed 32 or so hours of graduate school classes—
or basically another year and a half in one year. I now only have two terms left and I will have two Masters degrees; I am so ready to be done.
I have dived in deep to a book project. I am writing creative-nonfiction essays set in the time period between completing my undergrad and the “waiting” period before starting grad school (and moving out of KS to Chicago). I’m looking to write 15-20 essays of different lengths. Ryan may even draw cartoons to go with it!
Started this blog.
Love it.
Started abstract painting project
This has helped balance my writing and actually bring out subconscious feelings and emotions that help me in other aspects of my life. It has turned into a type of therapy and honestly it is one of the only things I do only for myself—if other people like it, that’s great, but it has yet to turn into a professional endeavor.
James Cameron's Avatar released recently and along with it came many many underlying theories to be exposed....
Marxist: The Na’vi (the blue people) are the working class and the white people are the capitalist bastards trying to control through a monetary value-oriented system. In this film we finally see a fine representation of a working class rebellion. The Na’vi will not allow the Capitalists to ruin their lives, the spirits of their ancestors and the lives of their future generations, thus they fight.
Post-Colonial: This theory is perhaps the most obvious in this movie. The White People come over to another planetary system after they destroy their own and try to take over the indigenousness people’s land and resources through force and manipulation. Sound familiar much?
Feminist: The movie reveals a world that possesses a great balance on the planet, not just between males and females, but between all creatures of their world. It was quite beautiful to see the connecting forces that exist here on Earth but instead have (mostly) been brutally raped and destroyed by industrial patriarchy. In the movie, Pandora (what can be symbolized as Mother Earth) is majorly threatened by over-masculinized forces—the human military, but the connecting spirit and energy, Eywa, of Pandora is so strong it will not be overthrown.
Not World Wrestling Entertainment, Not American Wrestling Federation, Not Windy City Wrestling, but, simply, THE WRESTLING. Focused entirely on Good Versus Evil; The Wrestling metaphorically represents United States strength—it’s star--a muscularly-defined charismatic black man known as Chad Deity (Kamal Angelo Bolden). A man who has everything The Wrestling needs except actual wrestling skills. But that doesn’t matter, because scrawny talkative Puerto Rican Macedonia Guerra aka The Mace (Desmin Borges) exists within the ring to do all the heavy lifting. According to playwright Kristoffer Diaz, in wrestling “you can’t kick a guy’s ass without the help of the guy whose ass you’re kicking”.
The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Victory Gardens Theater) is a humorous yet insightful look at mainstream United States stereotypes set within a wrestling federation that known nothing of subtlety or political correctness. When Macedonia meets his brother and his brother’s Indian friend, Vigneshwar Paduar, the two pair up as The Wrestling’s evil terrorists. The Puerto Rican as Mexican loyalist and Muslim sympathizer Che Chavez Castro and the Indian as Muslim extremist The Fundamentalist. The two are out to destroy the United States--symbolized through a brawny Chad Deity. Again—The Wrestling knows no boundaries—political or otherwise.
What makes this play brilliant is its representation of identity and its overarching theme of unity. The underlying social commentary that follows the three main wrestlers throughout the storyline is full of humor, yet that humor leads to serious issues of post-colonialism, racism, and socio-economic struggles. The play is able to bring these ideas to light through the metaphor within the metaphor of the wrestling ring. When the two “terrorist” (imagined through the “Mexican” and “Muslim”) fight against the U.S.A (represented at a strong black man) we see the minority with minority against minority that is so often played out in the streets. Instead of uniting over differences to take out the main power source (rich old white men) many take it out on one another.
Once people have moved up into the world of privilege i.e. upper-class, it’s hard for them to fight against racism, classism, and all the other isms—because they now “fit in”. We see this revealed through Chad Deity—money buys him ignorant happiness and submissiveness. Yet, we can’t let Macedonia off the hook either—he swallows the same system as well, thinking that one day he’ll be able to tell his own story the way he wants, that he’ll be able to alter the metaphor—not until Vigneshwar sleeper cell kick him in the face does reality set in.
The final outcome, perhaps not a revelation, but an interesting turn of events, does give the audience their ah-ha moment of clarity. It is a play to make you think, to make you grow, and to make you laugh. The story is fast-paced and full of adventurous fake-violence, shiny spandex and wit—a worthwhile play for everyone to see. It’s Not like World Wrestling Entertainment, not like American Wrestling Federation, not even like Windy City Wrestling, but, simply, just like THE WRESTLING a spectacular, mind- bending event for any evening. Open Now through November 1, 2009.
Victory Gardens Theater 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue Chicago, IL
Several mornings ago I was flipping through the few channels I have on network t.v. and saw Margaret Cho on The View so I stopped to see what she was up to. Currently she plays the assistant to lawyer Jane (Brook Elliot) on the new television series Drop Dead Diva airing on Lifetime Sunday evenings. I thought, oh well she’s funny that may be a good show. Then I realized it was on cable and I’d never be able to watch it, thus it was dismissed from my mind.
Only later when I realized I could stream Project Runway on mylifetime.com did I come across Drop Dead Divas again and decided to give it a try.
The premise is a bit much—a size 2 model named Deb (Brooke D'Orsay) on her way to a Price is Right audition dies as she wrecks her car into a truck-full of grapefruits at around the same time a lawyer named Jane, in the wrong place at the wrong time, gets shot by a disgruntle man pissed off at her boss for having an affair with his wife. Deb is in heaven and the angel informs her she’s a double zero. She has done nothing good and nothing bad in her life. Upset and never one to follow the rules she hits the return key on the keyboard and ends up in Jane’s body. Now Jane possesses Debs soul, but all of Jane’s intelligence.
Wehh. Yeah. That’s the running plot-line and I will not even go into the holes as I assume you can deduce what those are yourself.
What I do want to discuss is the last episode I streamed “Crazy” In it there are two main story-lines, one follows Jane and her shenanigans with some possibly insane guy she’s supposed to be defending and while the other line follows her love interest Grayson (Jackson Hurst) and another lawyer Kim Kaswall (Kate Levering) as they deal with both their relationship tensions as well as the tensions in another relationship they’re supposed to defend together.
Lifetime creates this “new” show in an attempt to say something about “inner beauty” and this woman runs back to a cheat?
What is this saying about monogamy in general? That it’s okay for men to cheat because women are inferior and have to deal with men’s discrepancies? That she wasn’t good enough to find someone to treat her with respect? Yes, it was absolutely ridiculous of the story-line to have her suing the maid of honor over ruining the scared vows of matrimony, but at least it had some reasoning behind it, whereas the woman completely giving up in the end lacks any source of empowerment for women.
Oh. You may argue, some women would go back. Yes. But, it’s television. They write the script. They could have made anything happen. The only reason they made that woman get back together with that man was so the main characters in the storyline would have a “revelation” and discover something out about their own experiences of the day. How disgusting.
If you’re going to have a woman run back to her man about cheating there better be a discussion about other options such as non-monogamy or polyamory. But no. Let’s make women look weak, passive and unconfident. Let’s have everything, including all the story-lines revolve around what men think and whether the men are going to like us. Yippee. Is the real reason marriage still exists just so we can have these terrible plotlines in shows? because that’s all it seems to be to me—this awful conforming joke that isn’t really funny at all. Love is all we need, perhaps, but not the bling bling wedding rings and contracts that are basically meaningless these days.
Check out Pervertable Tongues;
“Cut Out My Brains and feed them to my Dog” aka the monogamy song for more of my feelings about this issue,
When I get drunk I like to do things that I normally wouldn’t do when I am sober because they’re too chill. Like listening to music without moving. Or just sitting looking out the window. I couldn’t do those things sober because I would think about all the other “important” things I needed to accomplish, for example, writing on my blog, which is what I’m doing now, as I’m drunk, which then makes me contemplate whether or not I am actually drunk because I am attempting to accomplish something. As any Frat boy would observe, I must not be drunk ENOUGH, for they do not feel obligated to turn on their rape machines (popped collars) and bother me. I’m drinking a PBR right now, this after an afternoon of the Goose Island Brew Tour, which included six different samples of beer plus my own stylish glass for only $5. We tried the popular 312, as well as a wit, a RyePA, a red, a porter and a stout.
I have to be honest. I’ve been on this tour before. In fact, I’ve been on it more than most people. Why? Because it’s $5 for 6 different types of beer and a glass… and it’s interesting. This time the tour guide attempted to be funny. And he was for the most part, but then the tour and the questions began to drag on when all I wanted to do was drink beer—hence the problem of beer tours—we all actually just want to drink the beer and would generally not care how it’s made unless you’re sitting right in front of us telling us the process while we drink it. In any other circumstance our feet get tired. Hence, why I generally like the GooseIsland tour, the guides never talk too long.
This guide though, he tried to make it all fancy and shit by making us do all the things connoisseurs would do if they were sipping wine or whiskey or something. First we had to attempt to look through it in an attempt to see how clear it was; then we had to smell it over and over again, then we finally got to taste it, once to ‘clear our pallets” the second time to really take in all the flavors. Usually I have the nose of a bloodhound; scientists call this evolution, those with extreme smelling capabilities and low hair content are supposedly evolving faster than others (and since I have both skills I must be ahead of the pack) but after smelling a billion different scents and inhaling and imbibing too much alcohol it was hard to decipher what was supposed to be what. By the end we couldn’t see our fingers, which was either a sign that the beer was too thick or that we were.
I have to admit that I really enjoy the tour, but I feel that the food and beer menu is over-priced, which is how they lure people in to their chamber; tempt them with a tour, make them stay because the beer is so tempting. Rarhar. I wouldn’t not recommend the tour, I would just attempt to be less alcohol-tempted than I am and leave when the tour is over instead of staying for a beer or two or three…
Last night I was invited to do two of my favorite things at the same time 1) get naked 2) dance. Unfortunately I declined both. Ryan and I were at the National Pastime Theater in Uptown for their Naked July: Art Stripped Down event titled The Living Canvas: “Nocturne” directed by Lisa Adams. “Nocturne” was an interpretative performance danced completely in the nude. I don’t go to a lot of interpretive dance performances and I’m glad that the one I did go to happened to have lots of people sprawled about all naked like or I may have fallen asleep. Not that is was boring; I was just really really tired. The show was actually quite intriguing, though the originality came through more in the choreography and lighting than in the story-line which happened to follow the basic plot-line of the Giving Tree as well as takes from Alice in Wonderland, Where the Wild Things Are, and others. The main character shed his business attire and drifted off into a world of enchantment and captivation where twelve other humans met him in a long trippy dream.
The performance was based on emotionality rather than rationality; yet it did flow in a rather linear order as the main character grew older. The choreography was intense; I mean with T&A and B&A in your face the whole time, how could it not be? The most illuminating aspect was the lighting; they used slide projectors to cover the stage and the naked bodies with different textures, colors and shapes. It was one of those shows that could have been absolutely ridiculous, but the actors gave it their all and were completely solid throughout the performance; though you could tell which music numbers had had more practice, especially during a Tori Amos song--there were only three dancers instead of the usual 13 and it just seemed jagged and out of place compared to all the other ones, which were fluid and stream-line.
Overall the experience was beautiful and suffocating. Beautiful in the elegance of the movements to the music and suffocating in the sense that there was absolutely no air in the building. Once the lights went out I thought I was in purgatory and it didn’t help when one of the first songs was Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine” and there were naked bodies stacked up on one another like strange centaurs or hellish catholic nightmare strippers, but alas I survived the show. After the applause the main character went into some monologue about every body being beautiful, which is great in theory especially when you’re built like a Greek God like he was, but then he invited us all to get naked and dance with them to a song. I didn’t decline because I disagreed with him, I declined because I was lazy and didn’t want to take off my clothes just so I could put them on again. Perhaps that just means I am getting too old for mind-opening exploration and adventure… or perhaps my rationality has taken over my emotionality and I can’t let go on my outer-skin.
Whatever the case may be “Nocturne” at least got me thinking about balance and beauty and it turned out to be a rather enjoyable experience. I mean it’s not everyday you get to see balls and boobs dancing freely and happily to the joys of music and complimentary lighting.
I have my Master of Arts degree in Women and Gender Studies as well as a Master's in Writing and Publishing from DePaul.
I'm currently living in Boulder, CO working for a non-profit called Fertile Action and writing about visual arts (and more) for the Boulder Weekly.
Why blog?
I think too much, hence I decided I need a space to get it all out; and there is no better space than a virtual one.
