FLUFFYDOLLAR$$$**

Jersey Shore. Season Two. Episode One: We're going to Miami...Bitch!

2010-07-31T15:53:00.000-07:00

Party's Here! That's right, MTV. You sure did something right! I've been counting down the days until the premier of Season Two of Jersey Shore. There've been dribs and drabs of news about the shore kids, but nothing is as good as the real thing.

Also, I want to get something straight right off the bat. I watch the Jersey Shore because I think these kids are genuinely entertaining, and also because I kinda like them. I've heard others theorize that the show's popularity can be attributed to the fact that it's so easy to mock or hate on these kids -- that it's schadenfreude -- but that's never been part of the fun for me. I don't watch the show to deride their morals or disparage their wardrobes or scoff at their intelligence or denounce their sense of propriety. And while I'm interested in discussing and savoring the details of their social world and the drama and relationships within, there's something about the show and the cast that allow me to put my cynicism and the snarkiest of my snark on the shelf. It's sort of like the way I suspend my disbelief when I watch Totoro. Maybe it's because the whole thesis of the show is about summer and pleasure-seeking and fun. Or maybe it's because the show is basically a comedy. I just love how extreme these kids are; they make me laugh, and I love to laugh.

So here were are. We start off with an amusing montage of last season (oh! it's the duck phone! remember? And the hot tub! And fighting! And smushing! And GTL! And "we became a family!"). Next we get a series of shots of a depressing and snowy Northeast (brrr!) and then cut to Snooki gleefully crowing "We're going to Miami!" Okay, it's kinda weird that the Jersey Shore kids are going to Miami, except that the Jersey Shore kids are entertaining no matter where they are or what they're doing. Plus, we might get some hilarious fish-out-of-water situations.

So they're packing their bags and getting ready to go. Snooki's shiny new amazing gorilla juicehead meatball boyfriend thoughtfully applies bronzer (or what I like to think of as "eau de Snooki" -- I swear, if that girl doesn't have an endorsement deal with a bronzer company, then she should) to her face with a spray pump contraption, and then Snooki makes a ridiculous and mildly offensive joke about a tanning tax and Obama and McCain. I can't help but forgive her for said joke when she emerges from the house in an adorable black and white winter ensemble, trundles a tiny herd of black and white Snooki-sized suitcases to an enormous black Escalade, and then struggles to get them into the vehicle without toppling over. Her knowing look to the camera as she adjusts the driver's seat to accommodate her petite frame is priceless.

The crew makes their way South. Along the way, Snooki and JWoww stop for fried pickles in Savannah (thus allowing Snooki to make an esoteric and appropriately obscene joke about a man and his sister) and Pauly D and the Situation shoot fireworks and get stuck in the mud somewhere in South Carolina (thus allowing them both to wonder who triple a calls when triple a gets stuck). The Situation and Pauly D are the first to arrive at their shabby mid-century chic hotel apartment in Miami and claim "the best room." Although I'm quite a bit older than these kids, it seems strange for 3 grown-ups to share tiny bedrooms with twin beds. How are they going to smush? The next person to arrive is Angelina, who I will never forgive for declaring that girls "who dress like sluts deserve to be abused." Throughout the episode she insists that she's going to be "classy," but her slut-shaming past in only obscured by new allegations of "talking shit" behind people's back. Sammi "sweetheart" is the next to arrive. Poor Sammi is feeling all sorts of mixed-up about Ron, which is weird because -- to me -- Ron is the least charming of the boys, and Sammi is actually very beautiful and seems like a nice, fun girl. Later in the episode, she puts herself to bed early after confiding to the camera that she is still in love with Ron, and of course Ron is out at da club getting "obliviated" and making out with multiple girls simultaneously. Vinnie and Ron arrive next, and I don't really have that much to say about them. They're kinda the least interesting to me at the moment, so let's get on to my bitches JWoww and Snooki. JWoww is wearing an amazing sparkly pink strapless dress that -- if you ask me -- she should have worn out to da club. Snooki is adequately poofed and adorable. The most notable thing about their arrival is that they both are very annoyed to see Angelina, and thus ignore her. When Angelina greeted Sammi earlier and asked "are we cool?", Sammi responded "I don't know, because I've been hearing that you're saying stuff, and I don't like that." But it's clear that all three girls from last season aren't really feeling Angelina, who, fortunately[?], is rooming with Pauly and the Situation (Pauly did say something about how it might be convenient that they are all sharing a room in the event that it rains and they can't go creeping).

So everyone's settling in and drinking ron ron juice. Angelina joins the boys in the hot tub while Sammi and Snooki sit on a couch and put giant conch shells to their ears and try to listen to the sounds of delicious gorilla juiceheads frolicking in the Miami surf. It seems like Snooki looses her earring in the conch, but I can't really tell because they are promptly interrupted by JWoww's screams from the closet. You see, a shelf full of Sammi's clothes fell on top of a dresser littered with cups of ron ron juice, so now all of Sammi's clothes (including her favorite white shorts!) are stained with a beverage named after her unrequited love. Poor Sammi. But don't fret, something positive does come out of the situation. As the girls try to help Sammi clean up her clothes, Snooki bemoans her plight of washing clothes in the sink like "a pilgrim from the 1920s." Then she puts the wet clothes in a garbage bag and attempts a southern twang, asking Sammi "iz there-a some-a-place where you-a want me-a to put these ma'am." The whole scene is so hilarious and so absurd and is actually sort of bonding for the girls. They really do seem like sisters. Twang speaking pilgrim sisters from the 1920s.

The clock says quarter to 11 which means going out time. Everyone gets all gussied up and piles into two cabs: one for the boys and one for the girls. For the first time, the four girls are all alone together. JWoww and Snooki ask Sammi to open about about the Ron situation so they can help her, which somehow inspires Angelina to interject that they shouldn't judge her for leaving last year because she left for a guy and if they like guys then they should understand. This would be annoying even if it wasn't an attempt to rewrite history (because we all know Angelina was kicked out of the shore house last summer because she was too lazy to work at the tee shirt store), but it is even more annoying because she's interrupting Girl Bonding Time. The girls are confused, and when Angelina clarifies, JWoww sets her straight -- insisting that they're freezing her out because she's been talking shit about them, NOT because of her early departure from Seaside. Things escalate, and JWoww asks Angelina if she wants to "take it outside." The absurdity of this request is only enhanced by the fact that both Snooki and Sammi are laughing hysterically. When the girls spill out of the cab in a disgusted huff, Snooki and Angelina exchange a few last, hilarious insults.

SNOOKI: You're a white rat! You're are fucking pale and you're nasty!

ANGELINA: And you're too tan!

SNOOKI: I am tan and I like being tan, bitch!

When Snooki finally exits the cab, she has to run in her teeter-tottery high heels to catch up with JWoww, who at this point is striding defiantly down the busy street. "Jenni!" Snooki bays, hurrying to catch up with her friend. And you know, you just gotta hand it to Snooki. In the midst of the Miami traffic, Snooki is just this tiny, tan, poofed, stilletoed, mini-skirted spitfire, barreling ahead as fast as she can, crowing "Jenni!" I love her.

Things don't get much better when the crew arrives at the club. Ron and Sammi get into an inscrutable argument, and then Ron calls her "the c word." The boys and Angelina move on to the next club, and Sammi and JWoww and Snooki head home.

Back at the apartment, the girls get ready to turn in. JWoww says something about "putting vaseline on my face, taking my earrings out, and putting my hair up, and I'm going to be the crap out of her" to someone on the phone, and Sammi whispers to Snooki that she doesn't know if she can live in the same house with Ron. The credits play over alternating shots of the girls at home and the boys and Angelina at the club, suggesting that the unresolved romance between Ron and Sammi and the tension between the girls and Angelina are going to the be the chief narrative threads for the first few episodes.

In the confessional, Sammi muses that "things don't always end like a fairy tale ends." And based on the season previews, it definitely doesn't look like a fairy tale, but that is probably because Jersey Shore is more of a farce. It's a respite from the real world, an opportunity to escape into an alternate reality of GTL, Snooki-snacks, ron ron juice, cheesy club music, bedazzled tee shirts, and fist-pumping for friendship, fantasy, and fun. Snook the night, y'all.

x-posted to Celebricidal (coming soon!)

LC WAS RIGHT (over The Hills)*

2010-07-28T21:28:00.000-07:00

Okay. I know The Hills ended weeks ago which in internet time is like five years, but I have to say: LC was right. She knew early on that Spencer was bad news.

And you know what? The producers should have listened to her. I have this feeling that one of the reasons she left The Hills is that she was fed up with being pressured to film with Hedi and Spencer, and maybe also a little annoyed that she had to keep pretending that there was some on-again/off-again thing with Brody. If the producers had simply gotten rid of Heidi and Spencer -- who were ridiculous and boring anyway -- and refocused the show on Lauren and other young women exploring their careers in Los Angeles, The Hills might have ended on a note that secured its reputation as a pop-culture phenomenon. Instead, it was like a sad little gasp.

I re-watched the first episode of The Hills during the incessant marathon that preceded the series finale, and I was struck by how different the show had become by the final season. The first episode is filled with close-ups of faces and details, silences, and the main story is that Lauren is starting fashion school and trying to get an internship. The women are ambitious and optimistic, and the main relationships are those among the women. The boys are on the periphery. Even into season six, when there was little interesting left, the show's most compelling moments continued to be those between the women.

There's been plenty of discussion about The Hills closing montage. It was effective at acknowledging the constructions of real/unreal that pervaded the show and characterize its environs, but why did it focus on Brody? Initially, I was somewhat baffled that Brody was the subject of the closing shot, but I've come to the conclusion that his silhouette against the painted backdrop actually recalled the initial disruption and symbolized the subsequent fall of the show. In this way, it is probably a fit ending. Jason was bad, but he was *really* Lauren's boyfriend. It's been widely acknowledged that Brody and Spencer hatched a plan to get on the show by dating the leading ladies, and they did. And we all know how that turned out.

In a perfect world, there would have never been a Brody or Spencer on The Hills, and the closing shot of the series might have been one of Lauren confidently striding down the runway at the finale of her own first fashion show. But Lauren left the show, perhaps because she was too real for the contrived drama of the hothouse. So instead we get Brody -- chiseled and robotic -- bidding farewell to Kristin (whose total lack of ambition kept her presence rather vague and pointless). As Kristin's car pulls away, Brody cuts a generic silhouette against the fake hills on a studio lot in the valley of the real hills as, somewhat half-heartedly, footage from the past six seasons flickers through a familiar and almost plain boring montage. When at last the painted background is rolled away and we see the cameras and the cranes and the crew, there is a reminder that at one time this show was interesting.

But LC moved on, and this is just what's left.

*this is just a sneak peek at our next project, CELEBRICIDAL (coming soon!)

Nepotiz

2008-06-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching a few minutes of Luke Russert, the college-aged son of late TV host Tim Russert on Larry King. The passing of Russert the elder was very sad, as is every premature death. But the rush to make Luke Russert the "hair apparent," as Paulie Walnuts might say, is annoying. And not just because Luke Russert seems to be talentless, uncharismatic, and smug. Why the hell is he on TV as the voice of young America? By virtue of his class status and connections, he represents the perspective of a tiny minority of Americans. Hopefully, like Theresa Heinz Kerry's "allegedly" hunky son, trotted out on the 2004 campaign trail, who the MSM assumed the nation would collectively swoon for, my guess is that Luke Russert's stab at fame will be greeted with incredulity and annoyance.

As a Canadian, I am familiar with this process: the neoliberal crook Brian Mulroney has a son who rode his connections to fame as host of "Canadian Idol"; Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's unctuous and punch-worthy sons tried to milk careers out of their last name (like Russert, the chiaorscuro photograph of whom holding his father's anchor chair is one of the tackiest mementos mori I have ever seen, one of Trudeau's kids used the immediate post-death phase to market his "brand," in a flamboyantly theatrical eulogy that still causes involuntary wincing); even Eugene Levy's son has a career in Canadian media, as a host of The Hills aftershow on MTV Canada. This is fitting, of course, because The Hills is itself a vehicle for raging nepotism. It stars Brody Jenner, idiot son of track star Bruce Jenner (now stepfather of another clan of nepotizzerz, the Kardashian daughters of one of OJ Simpson's lawyer), whose previous attempt to become famous was as part of evil idiot Spencer Pratt's reality show about stepfather David Foster. The Hills also features Laguna Beach veterans who would not have careers were it not for the accomplishments of their well-heeled parents. (Remember Lauren Conrad showing Stephen around her multitrillion dollar cliffside crib-in-progress, as if she had something to do with it?)

On E!, film critic Jeffrey Lyons's fucktard son Ben prances around as if he actually earned his way into show biz. Mike Wallace's son Chris holds court on Fox News, ranting against handout-hungry liberals. This year's big film Juno was directed by celebuspawn Jason Reitman (who claims to be a passionate libertarian--i.e. a fan of the free market and enemy of the social welfare state, which of course is a very principled and courageous position for one born rich, well-connected, and healthy. Douche.) Judd Apatow, Josh Schwartz, and Seth Rogen are also kids of industry types. They have used their edge to mainstream fag jokes and celebrate fratboy stoner machismo of a most unimaginative kind. Double douches. Not to mention the careers of Kate Hudson and Rumer Willis, Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, Kimberly and Sean Stewart, Tori Spelling, Bill Kristol and George W. Bush. Douchosity to the power of douche.

Even on the left, nepotiz runs rampant. Witness the careers of Naomi Klein and Chesa Boudin. In my field, US History, many kids of the famous and well-connected rule the roost: David Brinkley's son Alan, for instance, and Alfred Kazin's son, Michael are two of the most prominent dudes in the discipline.

I know I should offer some deep analysis of nepotism and why I hate it so much. Lacking the patience or discipline to do so, all I can say is: it annoys me. I wish folks were more honest about it. I wish that young offspring of the famous and successful were less smug and complacent. And given the generally mediocre quality of their work and thinking, I wish we could see and hear instead from the folks they skipped ahead of. I bet they are less irritating.

My New Favorite Show

2008-06-20T14:42:00.000-07:00

There have been like 5 million things I've wanted to post about since I last blogged over here at Fluffy D. But I've been too mercurial or lazy to actually get to any of them...until now. This because I cannot contain my excitement about America's Best Dance Crew.

Remember when Project Runway first started? And it was like, omg! it is so fun to watch people be creative? Well ABDC reminds me of that. Some of these kids are so creative it is sick. And the judges, especially Lil' Mama, are hilarious.

This show makes me really really happy. The only drawback is that I am starting to like really cheesy music (ie "Apologize" by One Republic feat Timbaland). Once I saw the Jabbawokeez dance to that shit, I was hooked.

My faves so far: supercrew,
fanny pack
and asiid

5 Theses on The Hills

2008-05-13T23:11:00.000-07:00

(this post is repurposed from a comment on zigizgger)

Devastated by the end of the Hills mini-season-plus... inspired by the writings of femme feral, zigzigger, dr. television, and of course songs about buildings and food... so: some additional mist for the grill from two perspectives, one (labor history) in which I am actively training, and the other (art criticism) in which I am but a hacky pretender.

Thesis 1: Reality television is, among other things--probably first and foremost-- an accumulation strategy. MTV is part of a large transnational corp; labor costs are among the most nettlesome barriers to increased profitability. Using performers like LC, Lo, and Heidi who apparently style their own hair, do their own makeup, and wear their own clothes, hang out at readymade locations like Hyde and Don Antonio's (not to mention the fake job sites) , and are illuminated by natural light means that a whole raft of unionized professionals are unnecessary. That is, in reality-speak, what it is.

Why I love the Hills despite the dangers its success poses to one of the few remaining one-hundred-percent unionized modes of creative production is that it resists the urge to humiliate the performers it enlists. On The Hills, like on Survivor or Shot of Love with Tila Tequila, the people we watch are working--and unlike actors, their work is undisguised, in service only of its own realization (as such Spencer Pratt is absolutley right that he "works harder" than actors, although apparently he does understand why) and what we watch is their work.

Thesis 2: The difference between LC and your average reality show contestant or personality is that LC retains dignity that others are forced to sacrifice in order to participate. LC is not made to prance around in outfits she hates, smooch scorpions, or dance on bars. The existence of a separate "LC 2" covered in the tabloids is, in fact, a testament to the dignity of her labor. She gets to protect a measure of privacy, interiority, intimacy, experience that we cannot purchase. This is why, the LC sex tape about which Spencer and Heidi compulsively speak has such a vital structural role within the Hills's organzing logic. Not because it would prove that LC is not a "good girl"--an irrelevant claim, at best-- but because it would deprive LC of the rare status she has negotiated, a celebrity whose work does not require the complete demolition of her private subjectivity, the exposure of her anatomy, or compliance with the brutal economy of exhibitionism and attention that has ensnared so many others.

Thesis 3: At the same time, the Hills format is also--intentionally, by design, brilliantly-- a vehicle for all manner of branding, including the continuing branding of what on Laguna Beach was the "OC" lifestyle (no laughing matter--Mike Davis points out that OCs have been popping up in Dubai and suburban India, gated communities with Jamba Juices and Starbucks that apparently make the miseries of neoliberalism outside the gates easier to stomach), and which on the Hills is something like "twentysomething coastal consumer citizenship."

I have a bit to say about this. "Twentysomething coastal consumer citizenship" is structed on deep paradoxes that should make us uneasy... and The Hills does make us uneasy... we sense that this way of life is unstable (how long can a vain and entitled ruling class claim NYC and LA for itself?), parasitic (how much of this is funded by expensive educations, trust funds, connections), in some way deeply anhedonic (even the "fun" careers of music, fashion, and PR seem dull, monotonous, often marked by abusive managers and arbitrary demands). But this lifestyle also articulates a philosophy about public space and the legitimacy of different strategies of profiting off of the commons.

LA has long been the epicenter of "twentysomething coastal consumer citizenship" as neoliberal ideology. Lauren and Lo and the camera crews of the Hills have a social warrant to use the sidewalks and streets of LA to make money. In contrast, the poor cannot even use these same public spaces in order to survive, with the rise of broken windows policing and the virtual criminalization of homelessness. Even the act of inhabiting public space in LA as an identifiably Mexican-American or African-American youngster has been criminalized... the LAPD now considers merely being out of doors as criteria for entering youth into gang databases. And as recent NYPD shootings demonstrate, being outside and African American is grounds enough for murder by the police.

Thesis 4: But merely criticizng the brand that the Hills is selling is ultimately too reductive. The Hills has a character--Spencer Pratt--who embodies this lifestyle brand and its ethic in the manner of a character in a medieval mystery play. In Spencer Pratt we see "twentysomething coastal consumer citizenship" in all of its appalling awfulness. And not only because of Pratt's (disturbingly patchy and unattractive) mustache-twirling and scenery-chewing. I am convinced that he is there as a force of repulsion for LC. She does not hate him for what he has done, she hates him for what he is. She does not want to be him. In the end, she will fail. But that is in the nature of tragedy, and it is clear that the Hills is a quite classic tragedy, resonating especially with the Wharton and Dreiser tragedies of capitalism's excess from the last Gilded Age.

Thesis 5: Finally, I want to say something about form. The Hills is utterly brilliant in its formal integrity. It is also clearly, in my view, a work of high minimalism-- right up there with "Groundhog Day" in the canon of pop takes on this form. The materials used by the Hills's creators are ruthlessly kept to a minimum, and deployed in mathematical permutations: from the shots of street life, to the music cues, to the very conflicts staged by the principals. Like the Ibsen maxim that a gun introduced in Act I will go off in Act V, on the Hills, any element introduced anywhere will be re-used across the matrix of personal relationships. LC ditches a job opportunity for a lame boyfriend? So will Heidi. Not out of a lack of imagination on the part of the creators, but out of a rigid commitment to testing a hypothesis: repetition is interesting.

Repetition is also the symbol of the underside of capitalist pleasure-seeking-- the endless procession of logos and trademarks, the cloned spaces of commercial real estate, the looped grooves of pop music, the constricted language of empty phrases and ambiguous gestures. Here is where I emphatically celebrate the Hills. Has any work of art ever traversed the terrain of blankness, repetition, and redundancy to better effect? I don't think so. If historians of the future are judicious, they will watch the Hills to get a sense of the affective character of turn-of-the-century American capitalism.

Pro Nails

2008-03-18T13:21:00.000-07:00

basically the best thing since lil' mama's lipgloss

Quarterlife

2008-02-26T22:13:00.000-08:00

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
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FUCKINGKILLMEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASTOPSTOPSTOPA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIHATEYOUFUKCI
NGFUKCERSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Voices That I Think are Very Good

2007-08-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

Corrin Tucker

Amy Winehouse

It's been awhile

2007-08-27T12:16:00.000-07:00

I got two new t-shirts

Hex Presse

2007-07-11T12:26:00.000-07:00

It occurred to me that I ought to mention HEX PRESSE, a feminist micro-press. Hex Presse is the print/tangible companion to WOMB POETRY. You can read our mission statement here and buy our games, chapbooks, and other fun things here.

Beth Ditto to design clothes!!!

2007-07-03T19:26:00.000-07:00

I'm not the only one

2007-06-20T21:05:00.000-07:00

who was totally annoyed by Knocked Up

he threw the unused condom on the floor!!!! I audibly gasped in horror. what an asshole. I don't care how cuddly you make the guy. that. is. fucked. up.

Proof That God Exists

2007-05-15T12:26:00.000-07:00

I HATE Spencer Pratt: Annoying Boy of the Week

2007-05-12T17:39:00.000-07:00

brody jenner and spencer pratt pretend to be cool

Spencer Pratt is a PARISite...literally. First he shows up on The Hills wearing dog tags, destroying friendships, and telling lies, and now he is on FOX. FUCKING. NEWS. explaining to Geraldo why he started the "save Paris" petition. I. hate. this. guy.

I don't even know where to begin; truth be told, I've often thought of posting about this miscreant, but I just haven't had the stomach to think about him for the amount of time required to construct sentences. But here I am.

I didn't think it was possible for me to hate someone from the reality tv world more than I hate Slade Smiley, but I do. Spencer Pratt is similar to Slade Smiley in that he has a pathologically inflated sense of self-importance and is really good at emotionally abusing and isolating his significant other (the also-odious Heidi Montag), but he is even more infantile, boring, transparent, and ridiculous. He advised his client Brody Jenner to "get that bitch [nicole richie] to eat" for publicity purposes, and he and Jenner both seem to have made it their mission to suck as much exposure out of their connection to The Hills as possible. Here are some choices quotes from an interview with MTV Reality World:

My new plan to keep everything secret like a ninja. Too many ideas are taken from me. I wouldn’t even know where to start with that one. My hustle is just too crazy. I’m trying to take over the world.

and later, when asked about his depiction on The Hills:

Well, I want to start to have our side of the story come out. I want to get a blog so people can know what’s going on with Spencer on the daily. Lauren narrates The Hills. Spencer is going to narrate his blog. Imagine if Spencer narrated The Hills… It’s how you skew it. If I’m the narrator, wait to see how much people love Spencer.

One of the most sickening moments of TV this year is when Spencer, in the season finale of The Hills, holds up what he calls his "homeboy phone." This is in response to Jenner's questions about how he will transition from "playa" to Heidi's full-time domestic partner (for whom he keeps a "girlfriend" phone). You see, he coerced Heidi into moving in with him so he doesn't have to deal with her friends. It's a pretty textbook abuse tactic, really. As is his move to manage Heidi's "career." This is yet another thing Pratt has in common with Slade Smiley, who recently began managing the career of his ex-fiance, Jo. It isn't hard to see that these management moves are little more than a transparent attempt to control the lives (and bodies -- Heidi just had a boob and nose job, supposedly at Spencer's urging) of their significant others.

Sadly, this isn't the first time we've seen men abuse women on our favorite music channel, and I'm not even talking about the exploitation of women in music videos. Just about every dude on the past few seasons of the Real World is an abusive misogynist, and let's not forget the abusive antics of Laguna Beach and Hills alum Jason Wahler. This trend is horribly troubling, and I really do worry about how young viewers of these shows perceive these men.

The conflation of the "romantic" and "abusive" in storytelling isn't new, but I DO think it is different when it happens in a reality show. I'm still thinking through how and why that is, but the most obvious consequence is that we must wonder about Lauren and Heidi's (who are real people) health and safety. We must question the ethics of the show makers in a way that is different from how we evaluate a fiction writer's choices because real people could get hurt. MTV seems to be making a number of shows in which real women are put in danger for the sake of drama, and that ain't cool.

Related links:
How to tell if you are in an abusive relationship

Related Annoying Boys of the Week:
Wes from the Real World Austin
The Drooling Dunces of Laguna Beach
Annoying Boys of the Week 4.16.06

Feminaissance and Wack

2007-05-03T13:34:00.001-07:00

So I did get a little taste of Feminaissance on Saturday. It took us forever to leave the house so we only made the last panel, but it was a very interesting one. I wish that I had been less caffeine deprived...but this is what happens when you stay up until 4 am every night!

As I mentioned earlier, Eileen Myles is AMAZING. I'm still organizing my thoughts about the other presentations, but here are some of the notes I took during E.M.'s presentation from the "categories" panel:

- the world determines your gender before you do
- one can be caught in the midst of two [gendered] performances: one true and one false
- hormones are writing (!!!)
- gender is a public thought
- gender and "things." In inflected languages (i.e. Latin) nouns are given masculine or feminine endings. In English, some things are gendered. For example, ships are "she." Also discussed gender and hurricanes. After the panel I did some research. As it turns out, the gender of hurricanes alternates through the alphabet, which seems sort of conceptually elegant to me -- this idea of alternating gender as something controlled/contained by letters and "names." You can see this list of names here. Also, why don't we name earthquakes or volcanic eruptions? Does a hurricane seem somehow more "live"; or perhaps a storm seems more distinct from the planet itself?

We also made what felt like a very cursory tour of the WACK show, which is electric and dense and thrilling. The concentration of feminist art creates a very palpable sense of urgency and power. It also highlights a desire to "get out" of the museums, which is to say that it draws attention to/makes clear the limits of the museum. Forms are used and simultaneously undermined. Museum spaces are productive and necessary and often feel like sanctuaries, but the underlying imperative -- the quicksilver vein of the WACK show -- is that we must change the world outside the museum. This may seem like a banal point, but trust me -- it has a sharpened tip in the context of this exhibit.

Anyway, the MOCA is one of my favorite places in Los Angeles. Besides the WACK show, there are some very interesting pieces there. Among them are some texty pieces by Alexandra Grant, including a glinting silver wire mesh sphere which seemed like something out of one of my dreams. Another piece I *loved* was by chilean artist Livia Marin. This piece involved over 2k tubes of lipstick (!!!) aranged on a curved base; the tips of the lipstick were sculpted into all sorts of shapes and reminded me of chess pieces in drag. Thrilling.

This Almost Makes Me Want to Have Kids

2007-04-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

via feministing

ETA: I usually *hate* stupid youtube videos of little kids doing "cute" things, but this one is special. trust me.

Shark Jumpers

2007-04-16T23:21:00.000-07:00

Lonely Girl and Veronica Mars, I hardly knew thee.

Also, Twin Peaks Season 2 is FINALLY out on DVD. Some say TP "jumped the shark" in season 2. I say it's still pretty good TV.

Why isn't My So-Called Life on DVD anymore?

My New Favorite Band is Mika Miko

2007-04-16T23:17:00.000-07:00

also, some Raincoats for your rainy days

BellumLetters

2007-04-16T23:14:00.000-07:00

an anti-war poeming project for "national" poetry month over at ovaries & sequins.

also, new poems online here and here.

Weekend Report

2007-04-03T19:52:00.000-07:00

cross-posted to puppy party

Oh Elka, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways

2007-03-23T19:48:00.000-07:00

Miss Elka talks the bay area and Kitchen Sink over at the SF Weekly.

b girlz

2007-03-13T14:30:00.000-07:00

"Myspace and the Mainstreaming of the New Racism" or "The Real O.C. is full of Nazis"

2007-03-09T13:23:00.000-08:00

In a previous post, I mentioned how I'd discovered a whole nest of white-pride nasties via the myspace profile of one Josh Waring (aka the troubled son of Lauri Waring from the Bravo series The Real Housewives of Orange County). Said profile is now set to private, perhaps to prevent nosy people like me from happening upon the profiles of random white supremacists and writing irate letters to the vulcans at myspace.com. I finally got a response today (I wrote the letter two weeks ago) saying that the content had been removed.

Even though the terms of use state the racism/hate propaganda are not allowed in the myspace community, a google search for "white pride" + "myspace" reveals that white supremacists are pretty annoyed that their nazi profiles get deleted. This seems to point to something -- I'm not sure what -- but something that suggests an interesting semantic trend regarding the ways terms like "community" are overlaid with "functionality." Why do white pride people want to be part of the myspace community? Probably because Myspace is one of the largest and most popular social networks on the web. And probably because posting content on myspace allows one to "publish" or "promote" all sorts of material to all sorts of people, not just those who are already in agreement with one's nazi agenda. In other words, myspace is a way to "mainstream" the racist vitriol.

And this is something that seems to be happening in many places these days, not just in some internet community frequented by the 13-30 set. The list of known racists in Hollywood just keeps getting longer. We know that Paris uses the n-word and other racial slurs. We know that Jason Wahler (one of the boneheads from MTV's Laguna Beach) slung racial slurs and spat at police officers. And then there's the good ol' boys: Mel Gibson and Michael Richards. WTF?

This trend seems to parallel the obvious racism in "the war on terror" and, for that matter, the whole stupid war(s). Never mind the obvious racism in the "immigration debate." I've heard people say that this is a "post-9/11" thing or a "post-hurricane katrina" thing. These explanations -- to me at least -- seem too simple. Especially against the backdrop of a trend which seems to indicate that casual racism is becoming increasingly mainstream.

Lonely Girls?

2007-03-07T00:24:00.000-08:00

The Shangri-las. Mary Weiss was about 15 when they recorded this song.

"My mother kind of signed my life away when I was 14"

Crackers and Bits

2007-02-28T21:34:00.000-08:00

WTF? The Olsen Twins can't stop wearing fur.

Fun Stuff to Distract You from all the Sh*t

2007-02-25T00:49:00.000-08:00

I am so so so into the san-x dogs stuck-in-things. puppytire is my muse.

I am also *obsessed* with sports dogs. Look at these poses! these outfits! Those little goggles and swim trunks!

And I don't even know what is going on in this one. Kitties who turn into things?

those folks over at san-x are f*cking genius.

also, I need to learn Japanese like five years ago.

I feel disturbed

2007-02-20T23:35:00.000-08:00

Okay, I admit it. Sometimes the over-consumption of trash culture does make me sick. Right now I feel sick. Not just because of the non-stop and ghoulish ANS coverage. Not just because Britney shaved her head. And not just because Lilo sent shit-faced Brody Jenner a text message that said "I just got out of rehab and I want Mcdonald's and sex." It's the toxic combination -- that noxious cocktail. Death and pain and hate whizzed with special sauce and saccharine.

I am convinced that The Real Housewives of Orange County is simply nazi propaganda. Do you know that people have fucking myspace pages for WHITE PRIDE!!!???!! I found one while trying to get the dirt of the castmembers for the The Real H of OC. How gross and offensive can you get? I find it hard to believe that such blatant, obvious racism has become so mainstream. It is SICK SICK SICK.

And then there's the *shocking* results of a study: us involvement in iraq INCREASES terrorism. no shit sherlock. That's about as revelatory as that other story that confirmed the "theory" of global warming.

Usually, engaging in a critical analysis of pop-culture is a productive outlet for these feelings of disgust. But sometimes the juxtapositions are so jarring, the implications seemingly so grim, the content so gruesome...

cutie crack

2007-02-13T14:44:00.000-08:00

1. Twiggy head, 2. Lhasa Apso, 3. Perfect Day, 4. Soosi, 5. Pokki showers. The only reason why..., 6. At the beach in Ban Thai, 7. after shower, 8. pokki, 9. What? Come and warm me!, 10. Tan, 11. SquamDog Canoe, 12. No name yet, 13. Beach Puppy, 14. hiding place, 15. Buds, 16. snowball017, 17. Running to mummy, 18. Shih Tzu, 19. blossom 3, 20. my pets, 21. Our 12 months old Shih Tzus, 22. Shih Tzu 02, 23. Soosies nose, 24. Ernie & Gizmo bouncing around in the snow, 25. peeking tzu, 26. Missy, 27. Only for the photographer, 28. Phoebe sitting on the balcony, 29. Samson Watching for Daddy, 30. chilling, 31. The Great Race, 32. Twiggy, 33. chasing birds, 34. Twiggy on the subway, 35. 16, 36. HAIR DO

made with fd's flickr toys

Girls, Lost and Lonely: Links

2007-02-09T16:11:00.000-08:00

Alice
Alice II
Persephone
Ophelia
Laura Palmer
Lilly Kane
The Vigin Suicides
The Lost Girls, about the movie 13
Lost Girls an "adult" graphic novel
Little Girl Lost, twilight zone ep.
Little Girl Lost, little house on the prarie ep.
The Lost Girl, by DH Lawrence
Tess
Diary of a Lost Girl, film
A review of Factory Girl

A Little Girl Lost
by William Blake

Children of the future age,
Reading this indignant page,
Know that in a former time
Love, sweet love, was thought a crime.

In the age of gold,
Free from winter's cold,
Youth and maiden bright,
To the holy light,
Naked in the sunny beams delight.

Once a youthful pair,
Filled with softest care,
Met in garden bright
Where the holy light
Had just removed the curtains of the night.

Then, in rising day,
On the grass they play;
Parents were afar,
Strangers came not near,
And the maiden soon forgot her fear.

Tired with kisses sweet,
They agree to meet
When the silent sleep
Waves o'er heaven's deep,
And the weary tired wanderers weep.

To her father white
Came the maiden bright;
But his loving look,
Like the holy book
All her tender limbs with terror shook.

'Ona, pale and weak,
To thy father speak!
Oh the trembling fear!
Oh the dismal care
That shakes the blossoms of my hoary hair!'

William Blake

annotated bib for this poem

Lonely Girls, Pt. 1.5

2007-02-08T12:01:00.000-08:00

So because I've been out of the loop and not reading very many blogs lately, I'm just now catching up on the blog discussions around LonelyGirl. Thanks go to zp who pointed me in the direction of this post at the churty experiment. At the time this entry was written, the mystery around the authenticity of LG was just about to boil over, and the degree to which LG's use of "new media" was instrumental in the hoax was the subject of much discussion. In a comment on this post zp observes that LG, despite its use of new media, is in fact an "old story."

I think what really bothers me is that, in this case (like, probably, the previous cases of the early novel and the fairy tale) the reader-consumer is solicited as an agent that is allowed to imagine that he might intervene and "save" the girl in all her princessly virginity.

That this experience (the experience of belief/participation in this particular narrative suspense) is being realized (because, in all the media and regardless of whether the story is fiction or claims to be something real, the reader-consumer's experience IS real) yet again, in a "new media" just makes me tired. If new media does new things, now that would be interesting.

Can we please become invested, as an audience, in something other than a young woman's purity now?

This comparison of LonelyGirl to fairy tales seems especially salient. The series was developed under the title The Children of Anchor Cove, and this sounds pretty fairy tale-ish to me. The lack of parents is reminiscent of fairy tale, as are the themes of entrapment and "being lost." I'm also reminded of the depiction of real-life lost girls -- girls like Jon Benet Ramsey in her pageant/red riding hood outfits.

What especially interests me about zp's comment is the observation of how the audience is solicited to intervene -- to mediate. Is the impulse to intervene separate from an impulse to judge and evaluate Bree? Is it a response to the absence of parents? Is it a recognition of the world as a cruel and sinister place? Does it inspire a radical critique of power?

Next: the use of the occult and magical in these types of stories

For Every Generation there is a Lonely, Mysterious Girl, Pt. 1

2007-02-07T14:33:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since the folks behind the you-tube driven phenom Lonely Girl 15 confirmed that the so-called vlog of Bree, a lonely, home-schooled teen, was in fact "not real." That is to say, that they confirmed that Bree is a character played by an actress. Whether or not this makes her "not real" is open to some debate.

I didn't begin watching Lonely Girl until a few weeks ago. I'd known about the series for some time, but it wasn't until I read this piece by the ever astute MZN that I decided to look at some of the videos.

I wasn't immediately sucked in. I thought the form was interesting and I found Bree mildly charming, but I wasn't really sure why the series was so popular. But then I watched a few more, and the mystery began to unfold.

I won't go into a detailed plot summary here (if you are interested you should check out the Lonely Girl entry on Wikipedia or else visit the lovingly-detailed LGpedia), but I would like to touch on how some of narrative strategies and themes of Lonely Girl have made me a potential victim of what fan-forum users call "lonelycrack." I think the "turn" for me happened when I saw this video:

I like this video for a number of reasons 1) Bree discusses her religion in a way that is guarded and odd -- seemingly programmed; mystery! 2) Bree responds to Daniel's vlog, thus introducing an additional point of view 3) the conflict b/w Bree and Daniel is enacted via vlog/media, and thus invites the viewer to mediate (indeed, a number of viewers began to post vlog responses to Daniel and Bree) 4) the vlog also gives us a sense of this conflict as happening in real time.

LonelyGirl reminds me more of a novel than a television show -- something like Turn of the Screw or Dracula or Rebecca (also, of course, a great film by Hitchcock). I think this is because one is forced to question the reliability of the narrators; Much like a novel that includes letters and diary entries, LonelyGirl pivots and swivels not only between points of view but also between points of address. What a character says and how she says it depends upon her intended audience. The fact that we are all here listening is (sometimes) irrelevant.

One of the most fascinating things about LonelyGirl is how the show used new media to "trick" the audience. This is similar to the supposed panic that swept the country after the radio broadcast of War of the Worlds. LonelyGirl also used the youtube platform in way that allowed viewers to engage with the videos by posting comments and gathering in chat rooms and making response videos. It was through these same channels that the folks behind LonelyGirl introduced new characters .

LonelyGirl has inspired a number of spin-offs, and one of them -- OpAphid -- has been "cannonized" by the LG "creators" as the "official" LonelyGirl alternative reality game, thus establishing that fan-created videos could potentially become part of the "official" storyline. The OpAphid videos contain clues, puzzles, and backwards messages that supposedly come from "the Order," a mysterious group connected to Bree's religion.

As MZN points out, before the videos were revealed to be "fake," the task of trying to uncover whether or not the videos were real rivaled the developing intrigue between Bree and Daniel, and later Bree's religion. MZN notes that

It comes during this cycle of greater democratization and interactivity, with media users and makers coming together like never before. lg15 has been a contradictory phenomenon, at once drawing its energy from the web community and taking advantage of it.

This give and take dynamic with the audience is certainly one of the most exciting things about LonelyGirl. Yet my hunch is that only a small number of the total viewers make response videos and post comments. And I'd be curious to know how many viewers stopped watching once the gig was up. I imagine that there are many others out there -- like me -- who started watching and keep watching because we are intrigued by the story.

So what about this story? It reminds me of some other stories. Or perhaps I should say that Bree reminds me of some other characters -- other lonely, mysterious girls -- girls like Laura Palmer and Buffy Summers. More on that in Pt. 2

Womb Poetry Volume One : Hives & Covens

2007-01-16T14:55:00.000-08:00

The premier issue of WOMB, an online journal of poetries by women, is now live!!!

Please visit www.wombpoetry.com.

Volume One, HIVES & COVENS:

Volume One
dedicated in memory to kari edwards

featuring work by:

* t h r u m *

: kari edwards : Eileen Tabios : Barbara Jane Reyes : Elizabeth Treadwell : Ann Bogle : : Alison Cimino :Susan B.A. Somers-Willett : Amy King : Kristy Bowen : Julie Choffel : : J.B. Rowell : Ebony Golden : Jenna Cardinale : Juliet Cook : Susan Morrison-Kilfoyle : : Holaday Mason : Toti O'Brien : Jessica Schneider : Karen McBurney : Sunnylyn Thibodeaux : : Sarah Mangold : Meagan Evans : Jennifer Bartlett : Marcia Arrieta : Michele Miller : : Priscilla Atkins : Anne Elezebeth Pluto : Marie Buck : Michalle Gould : Anne Heide : : Susan Meyers : Melissa Eleftherion : Susan Settlemyre Williams : J. Elizabeth Clark :

* s p a r k l e *

: Danielle Pafunda : Kathryn Miller : Julia Drescher : k. lorraine graham : Karen McBurney : : Michelle Caplan : Marcia Arrieta : Ashley Smith : Annette Sugden : Christine Bruness :

* c h i m e *

: a chapbook by Julia Drescher :

Trump Sucks

2006-12-22T00:32:00.000-08:00

WTF? Donald Trump is all over the place talking shit about Rosie O'Donnell because she dared to question his role as some sort of moral compass in the whole Miss Underage USA goes drinking so should she lose her crown debate. First of all, I think it's gross that he "owns" the Miss USA pageant. Second of all, I find it difficult to sympathize with mean-spirited millionaires, especially millionaires who make stupid reality TV. Third of all, his over-reaction to RO's playful yet valid critique of the whole scenario is petty and ridiculous. He's called her ugly, fat, and repulsive. He made disparaging references to her sexuality, suggesting that RO is acting out of suppressed desire for Miss USA. And he's said all sorts of other stupid stuff. He's just this white blustery angry man face. He's so offensive. What the fuck does he care what RO says about him? He's such an ass. I wish he had to pay a tax for every mean thing he's ever done. I bet that'd dry him up pretty quick.

The Wire is so good

2006-12-17T00:53:00.000-08:00

Thematically, it's about the very simple idea that, in this Postmodern world of ours, human beings—all of us—are worth less. We're worth less every day, despite the fact that some of us are achieving more and more. It's the triumph of capitalism.

--David Simon, interview in Slate

The Wire is the Best Television Show Ever

2006-11-28T17:19:00.000-08:00

I am in love. Those who know me know I love my TV. Yes, I was obsessed with Twin Peaks. Then Buffy and Veronica Mars. And yes, I've even lost days to the Gilmore Girls, Freaks and Geeks, Angel, The Soparanos. For laughs -- Curb Your Enthusiasm and the Office. But none of these shows -- do you hear me? -- not one of these shows can even touch the Wire.

season 1 recap

season 2 recap

season 3 recap

and season 4

5 quick things

2006-11-14T05:29:00.000-08:00

1. we saw Borat. a funny romp, however I could have done with fewer jokes of a scatalogical nature. if anything, it is valuable for its documentation of how little it takes to get homophobic rodeo dons and inebriated frat boys to reveal their prejudices. it is also interesting to see how many law suits are springing up. i'd be curious to hear what some of you film folks think of these.

2. tis the season to fluff your dollars. we hope to bring back a new and improved version of the fluffy dollars drinking game.

3. Laguna Beach just gets skankier and skankier. But Tessa and Rocky are very interesting young women. Or rather, their depiction within the context of the show is interesting. The whole "mean girls" vs. "nice girls" is as old as snow, but it's never been an especially pronounced theme on the show before. Sure, you had Kristin vs. Lauren, but Cami and Kyndra are way meaner and more gnarly than Kristin. And Lauren didn't really have any of the nobility they're trying to heap on Tessa and Rocky. As for the boys, an annoying boy of the week post is coming re: Rocky's manchop Alex, Kyndra's Tyler, and everybody's fuckbuddy Cameron. This is by far the most emotionally abusive cadre of dudes yet.

4. Hey! I'm learning how to design web pages. Here's a the first draft of our homepage.

5. Puppytire has a new friend.

3 Things to Be Happy About

2006-11-08T14:20:00.000-08:00

this

this

&

this

goodbye mac guy

2006-11-08T13:54:00.000-08:00

Perhaps for striking people as a "smug little twit," in the words of Seth Stevenson, ad critic for Slate. Long, he adds, is "just the sort of unshaven, hoodie-wearing, hands-in-pockets hipster we've always imagined when picturing a Mac enthusiast.... It's like Apple is parodying its own image while also cementing it."

source

The Best Store in the World

2006-10-23T01:36:00.000-07:00

Giant Robot

also, we saw Marie Antoinette. WE LOVED IT.

Annoying Boy of the Week: Mac Daddy

2006-10-14T16:31:00.000-07:00

I've always found the pc/mac debate mind numbingly boring. It's like arguing about whether you prefer nikes or addidas. They're just stupid brands. You like what you like. Whatever.

But the new mac tv ad campaign is so annoying. You know, the ones that feature a schleby guy in a tie saying he's a PC and a smarmy guy with facial pubes saying he's a mac. I guess we're on the third or fourth commercial by now. Anyway, the mac commercial I just saw featured supermodel Giselle. Giselle is supposed to represent an i-movie. A hairy, cross dressed man represents the pc movie.

This commercial makes me prefer PCs for the following reasons:

1. If I am asked to chose between schluby and smarmy, I'll take schluby. The mac guy is one of the most obnoxious characters I've ever seen. I hate that type of guy. If you are that that type of guy, cut it out. srsly.

2. If I am asked to chose between a supermodel and a transvestite, I'll take the transvestite; this person is much more socially-radical, and s/he promotes a fluid interpretation of gender. The supermodel is incredibly problematic.

I'm not saying I don't *get* the metaphor. I just think its premise and execution are incredibly annoying. Almost every commercial is offensive and annoying, but people are always talking about how hip and edgy mac's ad-campaigns are. Whatevs. This commercial makes me associate macs are with suburban, smarmy, white boys who think they're cool just because they read pitchfork and like the films of Quentin Tarantino.

Anyway, the new HP commercials with Jay-Z and Pharell are less annoying. And anything is better than those computer commercials that had the blue men pretending to be processors. Yikes. But it seems to me that very few commercials for computers feature women. And most representations of computer use in tv and movies seem to focus on the geeky "computer guy." Thankfully, Veronica Mars is all about the techie ladies, though the main computer whiz on that show is named -- you guessed it -- Mac.

Rock N Roll High School

2006-10-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

re-watching rock n roll high school is making me incredible happy. It pairs well with Valley Girl and is -- I think -- a better movie.

Happy Birthday to Nicole!!!

I Wanna Go

2006-10-09T11:56:00.000-07:00

to Ice-T's Rap School!!!!

Ice-T (born Tracy Marrow) will educate the students on a variety of subjects, including learning to rhyme, timing, scratching and break-dancing.

Rap School is geared toward exposing the prep school scholars to Hip-Hop culture, while proving to skeptical parents and faculty that rap can be a positive force.

The show will also concentrate on teaching students how to express themselves through rap, as well as how to find their voices and conquer personal issues such as shyness, speech problems and divorce.

After pressure-packed auditions and recording sessions, the kids' skills will be put to the test with a final exam: opening up for rap pioneers Public Enemy at the acclaimed B.B. King's Club in New York City.

Morbid AND Fluffy

2006-10-08T23:57:00.000-07:00

'What will your obituary say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

so we didn't see the guacamole

2006-10-08T23:43:00.000-07:00

But we did watch Dogtown and Z Boys and Valley Girl. I love California.

I also drank a lemon drop. Yowza.

Gotta Cali film to recommend us? We'd love to hear from you!

xoxo ff

calendar

2006-10-06T15:25:00.000-07:00

this weekend we are thinking of going to see the world's largest vat of guacomole. How large will it be. I will take a picture, and I will show you.

File Under Gross

2006-10-06T14:00:00.000-07:00

I added style.com to my yahoo awhile ago, but today I took it off.

Fur is so fucking gross. The devil wears prada indeed.

13 going on 30: Chick Flick Sick? Teen Movie Tricks? or Does it Just Have Something to Do with Mark Ruffalo?

2006-10-05T14:27:00.000-07:00

You are probably wondering why the hell I am writing about 13 going on 30 *

I like Clueless, Legally Blonde, and Mean Girls. I'm a sucker for six-hour A&E period dramas like Pride and Prejudice and Vanity Fair. My favorite movies growing up were Freaky Friday and Heathers. I think all of these are considered "chick flicks." But I hate crap like Sleepless in Seattle and When Harry Met Sally. And I can't even watch Affair to Remember or Dirty Dancing -- or --holy hell-- Pretty Woman. [I will never ever stop being shocked by the number of women who list Pretty Woman as one of their favorite movies. Fuck.]

Anyway, the subject of chick flicks and teen movies** has been on my mind since I watched 13 going on 30 and found it totally compelling. I didn't see it in theaters. I'm pretty sure it was out around the same time as Mean Girls, and I didn't even go to the movies to see that. I haven't ever really been a fan of Jennifer Garner, despite the fact that she kicked ass on Alias (I just couldn't get past its inferiority in comparison to Buffy). It was only because it was recommended by a friend that I even considered watching this movie.

Anyway, 13 going on 30 seems to exists in the Bermuda triangle of genres -- somewhere between the saccharine Olsen/Disney movie, the chick flick, and the teen movie. It's like Big or Freaky Friday in that's it's a high concept farce that exploits the premise of "be careful what you wish for," but this also means that it must negotiate some pretty, er, creepy scenarios when kids end up in very, um, adult situations. And it's inversion of the Lolita story -- the way the fantasy reveals a grown man's desire for someone with a 30 year old woman's body but with the brain of a 13 year old -- is, um, pretty strange. Moreover, the movie's (apparent) evasion of any explicitly gendered issue is curious; the notions of "nice" and "mean" are diced and discussed, but this doesn't seem to connect to anyone's consciousness re: constructions of femininity. Overall, this movie is an odd cocktail of winsome and creepy, charming and confusing, refreshing and disappointing.

I can't help but wonder if this also says something about this particular cultural moment; Mean Girls and The Devil Wears Prada are two movies which seem content to at once diagnose the conditions that lead to "mean girl" behavior (patriarchy, capitalism) and to ultimately acquiesce to the status quo. While I find both of the aforementioned movies entertaining, I would never call them progressive. In fact, I consider them quite the opposite, especially compared to movies like Heathers and Cruel Intentions.

But I cannot write about 13 going on 30 without mentioning Mark Ruffalo. I've liked him since seeing You Can Count on Me. And his role in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mine was way too tiny (in my version he played the part Jim Carey played). But I didn't even know that he was in 13 Going on 30. I just assumed the male lead was played by Jared Padalecki or some other clown. But it's Mark Ruffalo. And he is really really good.

*Okay, I know what you're thinking. I only felt like talking about this movie because of Ruffalo. That could be true.

**I'll likely be writing more about teen movies in the coming months, as I like to have them on as I work on my teen novel(s). Would love to know what y'all think about this genre.

ETA: The 13 going on 30 dvd comes in a pink case that smells like bubblegum. ick.

2006-10-05T00:23:00.000-07:00

question

2006-10-02T14:12:00.000-07:00

wtf is up with all the high school violence

high hopes

2006-09-28T15:29:00.000-07:00

for season 7 of the Gilmore Girls. Hopefully we won't have to watch Lorelei and Rory take a bunch of crap from their boyfriends anymore. I mean, we have Laguna Beach for that. Anyway, now that Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars are on the same network, they seem to be sharing stars. Word on the street is that Logan Huntzberger (Matt Czuchry) will be on VM and I just found out that Gia Goodman (Krysten Ritter) is going to be one of Rory's new friends at Yale. I'm so into girlfriends. Word.

Gilmore Girls Tonight

2006-09-26T10:32:00.000-07:00

also, I saw the first episode of season 3 of VM. I love that show.

Confessions

2006-09-23T17:10:00.000-07:00

1. I think the new Juicy Couture ads are really cute. They have fluffies and neon letters. I want to make neon poetry.

2. I am enjoying the new season of Laguna Biatch

3. I'm into DK. 15 years ago that DK would have stood for the Dead Kennedys. Now it stands for Danity Kane. (tho I still like the Dead Kennedys, fyi). Also, I think I like two songs by Hillary Duff and two songs by Kelly Clarkson. I think they are way better than the Arcade Fire or the Firery Furnaces or Death Cab or Animal Collective or whatever else the cool kids are listening to.

4. I've totally flipped re: my attitude toward the 6th season of the Gilmore Girls. How can I explain this? Perhaps I've accepted Rory. Perhaps I've accepted that the show is writ larger than life -- that the gestures are broad. I'm still mulling it over. But it is strange. I threw things at the TV last year. But watching the 6th season on DVD has been really fun. This is, of course, further evidence that all tv is better on DVD.

5. I have a love/hate relationship with IKEA

more confessions coming soon.

Eco-Kun, that's me

2006-09-11T23:57:00.000-07:00

What San-X Character Are You?

Hosted by theOtaku.com: Anime. Done right.

Campin' Out in Goleta

2006-09-09T15:22:00.000-07:00

So the move is about 75% done. We are still waiting for our stuff, which creates a sort of limbo state. I find it difficult to do ANYTHING without a desk, let alone a basic surface. That said, I'm eager to get back to blogging. I wasn't feeling it for awhile...everything felt like blah blah blah...but I think fall will bring some renewed energy to the activity. Not that I will be saying anything of great import (those of you who are at all familiar with the content of this blog know this). And I don't plan to make any fancy changes. There may be fewer celebrities, but the focus on fluffy commerce and entertainment will remain. So there.

Also, the lack of stuff is making me want to buy stuff. If you're interested in the things I want you can check out my newest totally pointless blog: fluffy ways to spend dollars.

Showstopper Pandora

2006-08-28T21:47:00.000-07:00

Aspirations!

2006-08-25T13:47:00.000-07:00

Hello, Campers. What a funny month it has been for the Fluffy $$$s crew. Austin to Bmore to OC to Tdot to NYC to LAX to Santa B. Whew. Our travels have been laced with many observations re: summer commerce and the world o' fluff. Did you read the Lilo interview in ELLE?? Nuts. What's your take on the new totally fug fall fashions? What about Alison getting kicked off Project Runway? Do you believe the rumors that HK was jealous? And did you see the new episodes of Laguna Beach. Those are some nasty biotches. I'll def have to make a longer post about that. The good news is that we got the second season of Veronica Mars on DVD. That show is so rad.

Anyway, here are a few chuckle-worthy pics from the Macy's display windows in downtown Santa B.

Aspiring Poet (note the glasses):

Aspiring Indie Film Makers:

And how has your summer been?

Slightly in T Dot

2006-08-15T15:49:00.000-07:00

Pandora @ the Beach (gettin' random with lady sov)

2006-08-06T13:20:00.000-07:00

Pandora Walks

2006-07-31T14:42:00.000-07:00

zzzzz pandora zzzzz

2006-07-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

Video Victuals

2006-07-29T12:03:00.000-07:00

Fluffy Dollars sending out some hits to y'all! With shout-outs!

This one is goin' out to Jenny Rowe! Keep on keeping on!

This one is goin' out to Nick Hennies! We need to do a LT remix of this pronto!:

My Pandora

2006-07-28T09:59:00.000-07:00

with music

and without

I love my dog. You probably knew that.

Annoying Boy of the Week: Jason from MTV's "The Hills"

2006-07-21T15:32:00.000-07:00

The Hills centers on Lauren, one of the main cast members from past seasons of LB. The credited cast is limited to four women, and the swirl of LA lights and spangly dresses juxtaposed with the interiors of the teen vogue offices (where Lauren interns) and FIDM (where Lauren goes to school) in the show's intro give one the sense that The Hills is a sort of west coast, post MTM, post-SATC saga of four young women. Lauren, while spoiled, seems like a pretty nice person, and the three other women on the show are also pretty likeable. Despite her prissy upbringing, Lauren appears to be a very hard worker and seems genuinely motivated to get her life on track. She also seems like a pretty good friend. Too bad her boyfriend is a monster.

Jason Wahler (aka "Jay-Wall") never talks to Lauren. When he does, he says fucked up shit like "I want you to never talk" or "You keep making mistake after mistake" even though all Lauren ever does is forgive him and buy him expensive gifts like golf clubs and dog tags. His attitude towards her is hardly loving or affectionate or even -- dare I say it -- sexual; he literally treats her like property -- forbidding her to talk to other men, even if it's for her job. He pouts and scowls when Lauren tells him she was sad when he decided to spend his birthday doing lines and partying with high school skanks instead of cuddling with her. His reaction to her articulation of any feeling other than submission is either volatile or sulky. He threatens to break up with her on New Year's Eve because Lauren answered her phone (it was another guy calling), even thought the event happened days before new year's. On Lauren's birthday, he rents a room at the Standard, but then sulks when Lauren wants to hang out in the room instead of going out. I'm sorry, but why the hell would you get a hotel room if you didn't want to take bubble baths together or feed each other strawberries or, I don't know, have sex without your roommates being around. I can only guess that Jason wanted to go out because he needed some blow. Either that, or he doesn't really like Lauren. My hunch is that it is probably both.

I read on a message board somewhere that Jason is bipolar, so that could explain the moodiness. But moody or not -- he treats Lauren like shit and should be held accountable. I also read that he's been in and out of rehab for coke and alcohol, that he never finished high school, and that he used to hit ex-girlfriend Alex M (also from LB season 2). On LB we saw him treat ex-gf Jessica like dirt, then we saw him kiss Jessica in front of Lauren even though he had already started dating Lauren. He's a total ass, and I have no idea why Lauren even got back together with him. One of our friends has speculated that he must be, er, well endowed if you know what I mean. But he's so abusive and so volatile that I'm always half-expecting the crew to drop their cameras and stage some sort of intervention.

The Hills makes me wonder what the current climate of reality tv ethics is really like. When Ruthie, one of the cast members of Real World Hawaii, developed a drinking problem, she was asked to leave the show and get help. On this season of the Real World, there are three women. One of them has been raped, and another one of them physically abused. The one whose boyfriend used to hit her is also suffering from an eating disorder. On The Hills, we see Lauren subjected to Jason's manipulative and erratic behavior episode after episode. Though each conflict is later reflected on as a "silly fight" or Jason just "being a guy," it's hard not to imagine what the long term effects might be. It's sorta like watching someone cut down a tree with a kitchen knife.

This does not seem okay to me, but is it weird that I'm surprised? The irony of living in a such a highly litigious culture has had me thinking that -- despite all the potential for exploitation -- execs and producers of reality shows would not only be wary of endangering their subjects, but would be unable to stand by by idly should a dangerous interpersonal situation develop. But lately I've begun to suspect this notion of mine is incredibly naive. I mean, if producers are not going to step in when people are hitting and punching each other, they're not going to do jack shit about someone's misogynistic and emotionally abusive boyfriend.

So is this evidence that MTV's version of reality totally sucks? Or does it simply confirm that the whole genre of "reality tv" is just plain voyeuristic and unethical and sick? And what about those of us watching?

My sense is that Lauren and Jason's relationship is particularly bad, but I'm worried that the reactionary climate of gender relations depicted on this show (and so many others) is actually more typical that I could ever guess. I find the fact that this behavior is perceived to be normal by Lauren and her friends terribly troubling, and I worry that the show's main audience -- young women -- might also perceive it to be okay.

Long Telegram, NAFTA

2006-07-18T20:05:00.000-07:00

The Long Telegram:

and this:

Ten Pounds To The Sound
presents

The NAFTA (TLC) Tratado de Libre Comercio
Farewell Concert
w/

NAFTA
Chris Cogburn . percussion . USA
Juan Garcia . double bass . Mexico
Kurt Newman . acoustic guitar . Canada

Friday, July 21st, 2006
Okay Mountain Gallery
1312 E. Cesar Chavez, Ste. B
(at Navasota - behind the Pinata store)
www.okaymountain.com

Gallery opens at 7pm
Music begins at 8pm
admission is FREE
refreshments provided - byob encouraged

In celebration of the deterioration of Late Stage Capitalism and the transition to the rising Western Hemisphere Socialism, Ten Pounds To The Sound is proud to present a farewell concert for two of Texas' most beloved improvising musicians - Juan Garcia (originally from Monterrey, Mexico) and Kurt Newman (from Toronto, Canada). Both are leaving the tender state of Texas later this summer for the sunny optimisms of Arizona and California, respectively.

Juan and Kurt have both given a remarkable amount of time, energy and creativity to those lucky enough to have performed, worked and studied with them. Their contributions to the creative communities of Austin and Houston are invaluable, and will be dearly missed - though often reflected upon and "inspired by"...

Best Quote Ever!

2006-07-12T18:07:00.000-07:00

"If Vincent Van Gogh had my personality, he may not have had to cut off his ear."

-- Santino Rice, on the casting special for Project Runway Season 3

Annoying Boy of the Week: Tyler from Real World Key West

2006-07-12T16:04:00.000-07:00

I hate Tyler. It almost seems pointless to even write about him because I find it difficult to believe that anyone actually watches this show. I mean, it's really really boring. While I'll admit that the "content-less-ness" of LB and The Hills is freaking brilliant (the fantasy is constructed by a meticulous collaging of scenery and expressions; I swear, each show has six words or less, and most of those are in the voice overs), whatever is or isn't happening on the real world is so generic and so predictable and so without any sort of style that I think you'd have a hard time getting a pair of shoes or box of tissues to watch this show, let alone any sentient being. But I digress...Tyler.

Tyler is the biggest prick I've seen on TV in awhile. He could give those entourage boys a run for their money, and he isn't even playing a character -- he's just playing himself. He's bitchy, manipulative, and mean as nails. He tortures he roommates for fun, and he especially loves to torture Svetlana (who, btw, is the only cast member who is even remotely interesting and is only 19. Tyler is a prissy 23 y.o. graduate of Tufts.). In the last episode I saw, Tyler compared Svetlana to a puppy who "needs to be punished...so that's what I did...I punished her." Yuck. He keeps a log of all the "stupid things" that Svetlana has said (I would counter that Svetlana says totally awesome stuff like "is the Everglades a mall?" and "my cat can say 'hello, Svetlana'"). When Svetlana finds the book, it make her cry, and prompts her to call her mom. At this point, Tyler has done enough grisly stuff to Svetlana to make any mama mad. So of course S's mom tries to comfort Svet by telling her to ignore the behavior of these "low lifes." Tyler, who of course cannot resist eavesdropping, overhears S's mama say this, and cannot resist jumping in. Next thing you know, he's yelling over S.'s shoulder into the phone. Yup, he's yelling at HER MOTHER. WHAT. THE. FUCK???? He then writes S a nasty note -- in which he calls her a "low-life" bitch -- and tapes it to her door. What a nasty freak.

Anyway, you get the idea. I can't really write anymore because I'm starting to feel sick. I'll just note that it's sad that Tyler seems so eager to play into the stereotype of the "mean gay guy." Get a life already.

also, the mtv website is really annoying.

View Blinders

2006-07-10T14:47:00.000-07:00

So the whole debacle surrounding Star Jones's departure from The View has been interesting to me for several reasons, but mostly because the conflict and the way it has been reported/represented illustrates the way in which "the catfight" phenom is totally dependent on the surrounding context -- that is, a climate in which women's bodies (Star), sexuality (Rosie), and power (Walters) are constantly subjected to scrutiny. I'm not saying that in an alternate universe these women would be best friends, and I'm not saying that I'd ever want to be stuck in an elevator with one of them or seated next to one of them on a long plane ride, and I'm not saying that they haven't behaved in a way that is unsavory. But I do think that the contours of the the conflict and the way it is being talked about have a lot in common with the way "mean girls" and " the hidden culture of aggression in girls" were being discussed in the media several years ago. It seems people are all to eager to believe that women/girls are inherently "mean" and "bitchy" and that this behaviour has nothing to do with big picture gender-dynamics. Nevermind that all the late night talk shows are hosted by men, that (until very recently) all the evening news anchors were men, and that women are typically expected to be thin and pretty and agreeable and straight if they're going to make it on the big or little screen.

I've been trying to think of comparable conflicts between male media folks/co-hosts. With men, conflicts are often depicted as a "letterman vs. CBS" capitalist/ceo fight or an uber-masculine "Jay-Z vs. _____" heroic-boast Beowulf throw-back fight. Obviously, aggression between men is much more acceptable, especially when it's validated by a quest for the almighty dollar.

Anyway, I've never been a fan of the view. There are times when I've felt it had its merits, though I can't remember what I ever thought those merits might have been. I have this feeling that they've all "sold out;" the show reeks of bush-era complacency/lethargy, and that's disappointing. They're in an industry that they cannot challenge without imperiling their own success. This is true for most people in showbiz, but seems especially true for women. I am curious to see how Rosie will be integrated into the show. The fact that she's out and writes this crazy pseudo-poetry blog make her seem mildly interesting. But I'm not holding my breath.

*btw, if you do an image search for "the view" on google, you mostly get pics of star jones.

I love Dominique!

2006-07-04T00:32:00.000-07:00

If it were not for Aundrea and D. Woods, I wouldn't even watch this season of MTB. Thank MTV I found Dominque's website and her myspace.

my new blog

2006-07-03T01:27:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much to say here. I still love the feminism and pop culture, but lately all I want to do is make picturepoems or do weird experiments with type or write rambly prose poems about wood grain and glitter and magnets. So I have a new blog for these experiments called OVARIES and SEQUINS. I'll still be posting here, of course. But if you miss me...

Music Makes You Lose Control

2006-06-30T21:38:00.000-07:00

Some pretty weird things afoot in the world of music and politics these days...

My brother kindly alerted to me to Pope Benedict's call for an end to secularoid music during Mass and perhaps in general. Out with the guitars, in with the Gregorian chant and simple polyphony. My reaction? Well, I am not a Catholic, so I don't really have a dog in this race, but I kind of like this pronouncement. Why? Well, of course, not because of the motivation behind the ban: which (I assume) is a rollback of the liberal innovations of the Second Vatican Council, to appease the Scalias and other rightwing ultras/Opus Dei reactionaries, etc. Obviously, we cannot take the loony right's guns away... but perhaps the Pope's statement will encourage voluntary divestiture of guitars.

After watching "God's Next Army," a terrifying documentary on Patrick Henry University in Virginia on the Discovery Times network (thank goodness this channel finally realized that nobody wants to watch endless footage of nerdy Stephen Glass-type journos investigating "wacky Americana" like "gay rodeos"), which featured tomorrow's Grover Norquists and Ralph Reeds strumming guitars while singing about the glory of Christ and the abomination of Congress sunsetting the Estate Tax repeal, I thought: "Good for you, Pope!" We have to keep guitars out of the hands of these conservatives. Now I know that Patrick Henry students are fundamentalist Protestants, not Catholics, but from what I have read, there is a fair bit of common ground between super-right Catholics and Protestants: rejection of evolution, anti-feminism, anti-choice, anti-gay marriage, and support for Bush-style authoritarianism and the War on Terror. Like I said, it is better if these people don't have guitars.

The first time I learned to link the ugliness of state power and the repression of music was, of course, that classic Eighties trifecta: Footloose, Styx's Kilroy Was Here, and Twisted Sister's "I Wanna Rock" video. A little bit later, in a discussion of the tritone interval that kicks off Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze," a helpful Guitar For The Practicing Musician scribe mentioned the Council of Trent's medieval ban on this satanic diminished diad, which led to a lifelong interest in the ways in which the history of music has been shaped by the Church and the State and other ideological and repressive state apparatusussses setting the rules of acceptable and verboten pitch combinations, rhythms, and timbres. The Pope's ruling is directly in line with this tradition, which, since Plato, has worried mostly about the subversive effects of musical sounds not subordinate to textual meaning. Perhaps some young Catholic kid out there is going to go to Church one weekend, and notice the guitar accompaniment they like is no longer there, because the Pope said so. I have a feeling that kid is going to start thinking differently about power and authority and art's disruptive potentials.

Not only did the Pope weigh in on matters musical this week, but also George W. Bush managed to sneak in a wonderful music reference yesterday. According to Democracy Now, Bush was showing Japanese President Junichiro Koizumi around Graceland when the Supreme Court's 5-3 ruling on the illegality of military tribunals for WOT detainees was handed down. At the press conference shortly thereafter, he joked to the assembled journalists-- who were about to ask about the status of his administration's policy of locking up foreign subjects without charges for over 5 years, with no idication that their sentences were not interminable, often subjecting them to extreme forms of torture, and denying them even the right to suicide-- that, like Elvis's sweetheart in his famous song, he hoped they would heed his request: "Don't Be Cruel." Here is a lesser-known Elvis lyric with which they might have countered: "Go Fuck Yourself, Douchebag."

Monday Literary Quiz Time!

2006-06-26T13:51:00.000-07:00

You scored as White Rabbit. You're constantly worrying about everything, and always in a rush. If you were diagnosed with any psychological ailment, it'd probably be anxiety disorder.

White Rabbit

94%

Alice

88%

The Mad Hatter

63%

Caterpillar

56%

Tweedle Dee & Dum

50%

Cheshire Cat

38%

Queen of Hearts

31%

Which Alice in Wonderland Character are YOU?
created with QuizFarm.com

Cutie Crack feat. Afro Ken

2006-06-23T23:33:00.000-07:00

(un)holy HEX

2006-06-22T02:41:00.000-07:00

Finally. A new show: HEX.

I'll let you know what I think.

And I love paper

2006-06-21T23:47:00.000-07:00

Find your own pose!

It's Trick to Rock Around

2006-06-21T23:02:00.000-07:00

Yo, some good shows coming up in the ATX.

1. ) Midori Umi, a radtacular band with porkmuffin (aka paula j smith) @ the 710 on Thursday.

2.) Finally Punk and Kiosk @ the Parlour on Friday.

Also,

a.) I am really into gin. And pinot grigio. I love summer!

b.) for those of you into the p to the o to the erty: FOURSQUARE is the bestest publication I've ever seen. Feel the love.

Fluffy Fluffy Fluffkins (you know you want it)

2006-06-20T16:46:00.000-07:00

Wishy Washy Watching

2006-06-18T14:42:00.000-07:00

You know how much I love TV, that pretty magic box with the pictures and twinkling people. But these days, well, I can't seem to find *my show.* That said, here are the shows I'm watching.

*Kathy Griffin's My Life of the D List. I think KG is really funny, and at times pretty darn radical. This week the episode is about the time she spent in IRAQ, and that promises to be pretty compelling. I'm curious to see how a show that is basically about Hollywood will depict the war.

*The Hills. Okay, I watch this show. Partly because LC is like this little trembling deer, and partly because Heidi seems to be the first graduate from the Kristen Cavallari School of Acting. These girls are not really interesting, and all the boys on the show are hardly distinguishable from orangutans, but still I will watch. Although I hear Jason is coming back this week and I think he is really really boring, so...

*Making the Band. This first episode of this season was really weak. I just can't get into Shannon. She seems like a nice enough girl, but she lacks charisma. Aundrea is my favorite. The focus of the first episode was on the girls' trip to NOLA for Mardi Gras, and to be honest, it seemed really strange. And sad. Dawn is from NOLA, and the cameras followed the girls into her neighborhood that is basically a huddle of moldy debris. And then she went to her high school, and the girls made a donation of 5k. I have no idea what sort of money the Making the Band girls have, but it is for sure a helluva lot less than Diddy, who owns single pieces of jewelry that could probably fund that school for a year. But that isn't even the point. The point is that Mardi Gras, and the whole push to revive NOLA through tourism seems really fucked up. And the Making the Band girls couldn't really hide their bewilderment and confusion. Dawn especially, who has since relocated to Baltimore, seemed troubled. I mean, she basically went to her old neighborhood and her mom's old business -- both of which were in tatters -- and then got on a float and danced for a handful of white tourists. It just seemed odd. And confused. And sad.

*At some point, I'd like to write more extensively about VH1's Can't Get a Date and National Geographic's The Dog Whisperer, which both seem to be a new kind of self-help show. I like both of these shows very much.

That's all for now. What are you watching?

BRITNEY and the notion of the "BAD MOTHER" or What's Up with Matt Lauer? A few preliminary questions

2006-06-16T12:41:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to post about this for a long time, but I haven't really known how to just jump into a feminist analysis of the "Britney is a bad mom" narrative that's been swelling and breaking over the past months. I'm not a child safety expert, and I'm not a parent, so I come to this without a personal arsenal of expertise. And I'm not really interested in defending Britney even though I've always been tempted to see her as a victim.

Anyhow, I came across this video via ONTD, and it seems like a very strange sort of cultural document, or rather, it seems like a document from a very strange culture.

Here are some initial thoughts/questions:

- Is Matt Lauer the new Barbara Walters? He can really push. Someone has to make a conceptual art piece using footage from this interview spliced with footage from the Tom Cruise interview.

- What role do gender constructions -- specifically constructions of motherhood, girlhood, femininity, and sexuality -- play in the way we talk about Britney. How much has Britney deviated/undermined and complied with/promoted these constructions? How has the "idea" of "Britney Spears" become the site for contradictions and questions about youth, gender, sexuality, celebrity, and class... And to what degree are the dynamics of these questions shaped by fluctuating depictions of Britney as either passive or active -- especially in comparison to other controversial performer/celeb moms (ie Madonna).

- Britney subtly alludes to the role classism has played in her scrutiny (she has often been referred to as "white trash" and the "new Anna Nicole Smith"). I've always sensed a sort of hostility towards Britney because she's a country girl who made a ton of dough.

- Is the criticism of Britney at all influenced by constructions of race? What is the relationship between constructions of race and motherhood? Is there a connection/relationship b/w this and the blatant racism embedded in right-wingers' critiques of welfare?

- How does the media's treatment of Britney relate to other cultural attitudes re: motherhood?

- Is there a precedent for this sort of scrutiny? I'm reaching here, but I can't help thinking about the wives of Henry VIII who were cast off because they did not produce an heir. Or is this scrutiny not really so unusual, and perhaps only seems extraordinary because Britney is so famous?

- How has first-world capitalism influenced notions of parenting? And when, exactly, did the contemporary notion of parenting emerge? What is the history of parenting literature? The history of books like What to Expect when you're Expecting?

Your opinions, ideas, and arguments are much appreciated.

I AM SAD

2006-06-16T12:24:00.000-07:00

...due to the fact that I MISSED MAKING THE BAND!!! How did this happen you might wonder? I'll tell you how...Central Time and MTV. Yes, I blame MTV for keeping the airtimes for the central time zone occult. Why MTV, do I always have to make some mental calculation that when you say 9 I should turn my TV on at 8? Can't you just add *8 central* at the end of your relentless ads for said show? Guess what -- if I hear 9 9 9 9 9 all week, I'm gonna turn on the TV at 9. Do you actually expect me to do MATH in order to watch a REALITY SHOW with DIDDY about a MANUFACTURED BAND???? DO YOU???????

Twinkie Links

2006-06-15T11:22:00.000-07:00

Mz. Elka, of the fantabulous blog Household Concerns, has a super-green garden over at SF's Apartment Therapy. Go check it out and give her a (green) thumbs up.

Also, a mysterious "someone" e-mailed me some cutie crack. It involves a kitten. You can check it out here. Ususally I am not a huge fan of the feline. Although I LOVE ALL ANIMALS, I've never been a "cat" person. That said, doing the Texas Cutie Crack makes me want to do more posts devoted to the lesser known and less conventionally cute creatures. Feel free to comment or e-mail if you have suggestions.

Making the Band 3 (season 3?) is Back!!! Airs tonight!!!!

2006-06-15T11:05:00.000-07:00

I only hope I can get over my longing for Dominique, who some of you may recall was my TV girlfriend way back when.

Expect a recap of tonight's episode tomorrow!!!!

Luscious Links

2006-06-14T14:49:00.000-07:00

Thanks to MZN for directing me to this interesting article about The Dog Whisperer.

If you blog, and even if you don't, you'll probably find Richard Lanham's The Economics of Attention pretty interesting.

Re-reading this article by Katha Pollitt has gotten me excited about reading her new book, Virginity or Death! "Virginity or Death!" is also a very good name for an all girl band.

peace out, Humphrey.

Cutie Crack from Texas

2006-06-14T13:58:00.000-07:00

Baby Armadillos. I've only just glimpsed these creatures scurrying across the road at night.

Blue Heeler puppy. These frisky cattle dogs are all over Austin.

Texas Blind Salamander (note the punk-like flares)

Ballad of the Sad Billionaire

2006-06-13T22:49:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!

Sorry I haven't posted lately... other exciting concerns have occupied my timez. I wanted to let y'all know that I have started a new blog, called I Hear A New World, which will supplement Fluffy Dollars (but which will in no way mean that I stop bloggin here). I Hear A New World is a specifically music-focused forum for my musical thoughts of a musical nature. I will appreciate any traffic that y'all can direct towards my new thing. No hard feelings, of course, if such things bore you to tears. I think this music thing is going to catch on, though. Tomorrow's artform.

BTW: Vh1's SuperGroup is incredible! I lurved it when Sebastian Bach forces Ted Nugent, Scott Ian, Evan Seinfeld, and Jason Bonham to watch the Gilmore Girls. Greatest TV moment in recent memory.

Update from the World o' Fluff

2006-06-12T23:49:00.000-07:00

Lots of stuff hap'ning in these parts. We be packing. Want some books? We be giving many away.

Also, have you seen LC's The Hills? MTV...how do they do it? So slick and nasty. That Heidi is one big biotch. Also, more making the band 3 is right around the corner.

We got season 1 of the Dog Whisperer on DVD. I like dogs, did you know that?

I met David Levithan and Rachel Cohn last night. It was rad.

I be feral these days! Watch out!

Kyle Walk

2006-06-04T19:46:00.000-07:00

I still haven't gotten a camera. I took these with my cell phone and made them slightly more psychedelic with photoshop.

Annoying Boy of the Week: Bill Paxton

2006-06-02T14:31:00.000-07:00

As quoted in People: "I told me wife, you better be nice to me because now the whole world loves my butt."

On discussing his bottom-baring "equal-opportunity" nudity (ie it shouldn't just be girls who show skin) in HBO's Big Love.

You Know You Want It

2006-06-01T00:33:00.000-07:00

funny/odd intereview

2006-05-31T23:05:00.000-07:00

I really like this Tao Lin.

Annoying Drink of the Week

2006-05-30T10:36:00.000-07:00

I've already confessed my love for Vitamin Water, the nouveau pseudo-juice from Glaceau. And the other week I tried the delicious mint-flavored Metromint. So I was feeling pretty adventurous as I perused the cold drink case at the market last night, and I decided that perhaps it was time to finally try Kombucha. Kombucha is a wonder-drink said to do all sorts of stuff, but I think most people drink it because it's said to help you lose weight. Anyway, since I was a little intimidated by the urine-like appearance of the original, ginger, and citrus flavors, I opted for the pink raspberry flavor.

BIG mistake.

It tasted like feet. Like salad dressing. I knew as soon as I unscrewed the cap. It's noxious fumes bloomed like vinegar. And still I took one sip. Two sips. Blech. I screwed the lid on and threw it in my bag, hoping that perhaps it would taste better later. The SB and I were off to an indie-rock show, and a drink always comes in handy.

Bigger mistake.

Twenty minutes later, I noticed an unpleasant odor coming from my bag. Sure enough, the Kombucha had leaked a little, and now my notebook, wallet, and all the annoying bits of paper that populate the bottom of my purse were soaked in the pink-piss. I discretely disposed of the Kombucha by putting it in a corner on the ground, intending to collect it on my way out so I could put it in the trash. But it wasn't long before a fellow show goer found it, and because he seemed to be a Kombucha fan, I offered it to him (I had only take a sip). Even he gagged on the stuff. I was then told I'd gotten the "wrong flavor." Whatever. I hardly believe that shit has a right flavor.

Oddly enough, the fact that it tasted like smelly socks has convinced me that Kombucha is probably really good for you. And as much as I feel like a big sucka for quaffing the other aforementioned overpriced elixirs, I've pretty much made peace with my fondness for the jewel-toned and fragrant silly waters. At least they taste good.

California All the Way

2006-05-27T14:14:00.000-07:00

Wash Your Punk Down with some Hip-Hop?

2006-05-24T12:32:00.000-07:00

Commercials freak me out. Especially the ones with little kids talking about juice. Yikes.

But two newish commercials aren't freaking me out as much as they seem to be signifying the ultimate de-fanging/crossover of two (historically or potentially) radical musical genres.*

The first one is the "Punky Chips Ahoy, Oi! Oi!." In this commercial, cherubic claymation punks (white kids with green liberty spikes and mohawks, combat boots, and cuffed jeans) and a giant, puffy-looking cookie cabaret kick their way down a London street as fisher-price sounding buzz-saw guitars churn their way through anemic Sex Pistols-style chords. They're singing all about "punky chips ahoy" until they're interrupted by a scowling bobby with a billy club who informs them -- "it's not PUNKY, it's CHUNKY." Oh, hilarious first-letter confusion!!!

Now, I feel compelled to tell you that the SB describes this commercial as "really cute." I also have a hunch that some of you will get a kick out of reading about how one singer was dubbed "too punky for cookie commercials." Interesting, since as the SB notes, this quality of "punkiness" is something -- in the corporate mind -- that is totally separate from the performance of punk. Moreover, the British version of punk sort of declared itself sold-out from the start, so the fact that it has taken 30 years to make it into a snack food commercial gestures towards a meta-meta cycle of corporate-capitalist culture.

There is another commercial I'd like to talk to you about, and this one is for Pepto-Bismol. This commercial involves hip-hoppers rapping about the virtues of Pepto. I wish I remembered this commercial better; I only saw it once and I can't find it on the web. But the fact that rap is being used to market an upset-stomach aid strikes me as a little novel. I already bemoaned the use of hip-hop in the AVIS commercials, which struck me as borderline offensive (white business men in ties rapping along to a song about "stacking cheese;" but when the boss calls it's all silence and "yes sirs." The grafting of gangsta-style rap onto corporate-lackeys in a rental care just sorta makes me sick). Anyway...pepto.

So I was trying to find evidence of the hip-hop pepto-bismol, and came across this bizarre pepto-bismol dance machine. I don't know if advertising has produced anything weirder than this. If you can think of something, please let me know. The person who offers their weirdest example gets an extra- special, fluffy dollar$ postcard with a personal message handcrafted by moi.

*I know neo-"punk" is full of "sell outs," and yes, I can see how "commercial" laffy-taffy style hip-hop isn't particularly, er, radical. But ya gotta admit, chips ahoy and pepto -- pretty toothless.

Notes from the Land of Hurt Feelings

2006-05-22T21:45:00.000-07:00

1. Not really, but that is a new poem title of mine. I feel like my life has been buttered with more than the usual amount of misunderstandings these days. It's a weakness and a pet peeve: I hate being misunderstood. Who doesn't, right? But I really really really hate it. It makes me want to throw a discus or spin plates or take up archery or attempt pole vaulting.

2. Soon, really soon, I will need a job.

3. Apparently, K-Fed doesn't write his own songs (!)

4. I'm thinking of getting a digital camera. Any suggestions?

5. I'm brainstorming for a gender & food post. In texas there is this crazy burger king commercial for "man burgers," and mzn was just writing about jamba juice's "femme boost." Some of this "gendering" seems to happen due to the idea that men and women need different nutrients (Luna Bars, the new Tab Energy) -- in other words, the food as medicine trend. Other gendering seems to happen based on the more mainstream notions/constructions of masculinity and femininity ("man burgers"). I'm interested in how these two trends are related, and if one strategy is more effective with either men or women than the other.

6. I'm finally doing that Flickr thing. And for cute click here.

Color and the Kids

2006-05-19T18:13:00.000-07:00

Is it a display of cowardice or maturity to wait until all of the evidence is in to contemplate the meaning of a hot button pseudoscandal? I don't know. Probably cowardice. But I am a big fan of cowardice! So I have waited until now to write about the latest fracas in blogville: allegations by a number of rock writers that Magnetic Fields frontman Stephen Merritt is a racist.

For those who are unfamiliar with this story, or with the world in which it has erupted, here is my understanding of the sitch. Stephen Merritt is a beloved singer/songwriter who has been making melancholy, witty, lyric-driven music for many years under a number of guises: The Magnetic Fields, Gothic Archies, Future Bible Heroes, etc. His music (which I have enjoyed for many years, and which also, along with shared admiration for the great Bethesda, Maryland motorik rockers Trans Am, provided the fodder for the first conversation between me and my beloved Femme Feral) draws on influences as varied as early 80s New Wave and synth-pop, Tin Pan Alley songcraft, and lo-fi college-rock confessionalism.

Strike one: a well-known rock writer, (a white fellow who went to the same fancy private high school as the Beastie Boys), and who has long written about black music for major publications suggested a while back that Merritt's fondness for "white" music and indifference to black music (demonstrated by a top 10 list or some such thing that he had written for a magazine) was prima facie evidence of a racist mindset.

Strike two: apparently, Merritt was on a panel at some sort of music conference and was heard to say that he had liked and/or continued to like the song "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" from the Disney musical Song of the South. As he noted immediately after revealing this factoid, Song of the South is a very racist piece of work, and "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" is modeled after the blackface "coon" song so popular in the early part of the century (and through much of the 19th century).

That's it. Two strikes. If I understand baseball correctly, one needs four strikes to be, as Heidi Klum says, "out." So... once all the dust settled, everyone agreed that there was only a very skimpy record on which to base claims of racism. The folks who needed to apologize have done so, and this should be the end of the story, yes?

Well, in one sense, sure. But in another, this story, like a few others that have circulated recently reveals something about anxiety vis-a-vis the racial politics of "indie" rock or whatever we want to call it. For example, a few months ago it was reported that members of the affluent Brooklyn indie music community, which seems to be a fairly caucasian scene, had been attendees at "Kill Whitey" parties. These are parties populated almost entirely by white people, at which hard-core hip hop music is played and the crowd burlesques urban "black" dancing styles in a hypersexual manner.

What these two stories have in common is that, on close analysis, they both require a pretty sophisticated hermeneutics to reach a coherent interpretation. It is not like anybody behaved badly towards a member of a racial minority group, used a racist slur, or made any offensive sweeping generalizations. Why such a fuss over two anecdotes that, if anything, seem to demonstrate so weakly that racism is a problem in indie rock culture?

Over many discussions, FF and I have pondered this mystery. We came to the conclusion that race is the hidden "repressed" of indie rock, a generic marker that often functions as code for "white rock music not released by major labels (but occasionally released on major labels, and more occassionally made by non-whites, but very seldom made by black people)" which then returns in strange, distorted forms such as Stephen Merritt racism-baiting and post-ironic, Williamsburg-style blackface mimesis.

Here is a short take on this hypothesis, taking the form of a structuralist analysis. Well, I should probably qualify that. In a nod to my favorite academic dis of all time, courtesy of Slavoj Zizek, I would call this approach "spaghetti structuralism" (Zizek aimed this term of derision at famed Italian semiotician and novelist Umberto Eco, whose work Zizek finds shoddy and simplistic... and which he compared to the low-budget "spaghetti Westerns" of Sergio Leone). But here I will try to rehabilitate "spaghetti structuralism" as a kind of folk knowledge, a term that describes the shorthand network of binary oppositions that many people draw upon when thinking about music and culture. The key here is that we are not pointing to "essential" characterstics, but to entirely "contingent" cultural stereotypes that are nonetheless highly meaningful to many people. In popular usage, "black" and "white" musical characteristics provide an excellent example of the reach of "spaghetti structuralism." In fact, we really can't make sense of popular music history without confronting the iron cage of vermicelli pasta.

Recall the episode of the Simpsons when Homer is watching a black comedian on late-night TV dipping into the hackneyed bag of vulgar race compare-and-contrast: mocking the relaxed swagger of black people versus the uptight posture of white people... Homer laughs and exclaims: "It's true! We're so lame!" Or the King of the Hill episode wherein Bobby becomes adept at this genre of comedic racial A/B-ing, and is then instructed by Chris Rock to find a more authentic mode of joke-telling... which leads Bobby to an unfortunate experiment with white-supremacist humor.

What do these examples tell us? Well, they remind us of the "hip/lame" distinction which provides the first split in popular understanding of race and music. If the forerunners of the rock counterculture were the Beats, then we need only look to Kerouac's racist celebration of black anti-authoritarianism, or Norman Mailer's odious but influential essay "The White Negro" to see how deep this foundational assumption runs.

I will not be the first person to suggest that the deliberate avoidance of syncopation in much of the canon of indie rock music contributes to its "white" quality. Nor would I be staking a very original claim by pointing to the "white" valences of affectless or self-consciously arch vocal tendencies favored by many indie rock singers. For those of us who grew up on classic rock, and made the transition to "indie" music after an apprenticeship in 1970s AOR, the links between "black" and "white" and "good" or "bad" are easy to recall. Playing "white" was slang for insufficient motivation, feeling, or expressive capacity in musicians. We understood that there was a reason that Led Zeppelin and the Stones ripped off delta blues records and the performance practices of R&B musicians when they wanted to access fantasies of exotic sexual power in their music, and if we thought about it later (especially in light of the new vogue in indie for British Isles folk music) we also put it together that these groups used white-coded UK folk music when they wished to tap into pastoral fantasies of a white past.

It is my guess that a lot of the musicians who created the first few waves of indie rock grew up in similar milieus, and that the creative decisions that went into the formation of the indie rock aesthetic included critical reflection on these "black"/"white" oppositions. I will further speculate that the decision to explore "unfunky" music-making was, in many cases, a way to avoid the uncomfortable aspects of racial mimesis that were so crucial to rock in its first decades. Thus, I think it is fair to say that, at once, the birth of American indie rock was both a moment of self-conscious reflection on the politics of race in pop music, and the crucible of a certain influential strain of "white" aesthetics. For whatever reason, as the genre came to be concretized this racial aspect came to be submerged and eventually hidden behind other aesthetic and thematic concerns, so that by now it is a fairly controversial move to even talk about race and indie rock...

Which leads me to my hesitant conclusion. I don't think Stephen Merritt is a racist. I don't think all or even most indie rock is racist, although I have met racists who make and listen to indie rock, and more who make the tacit assumption that "white" is not a racial construction, but just a synonym for "normal." But, in certain limited and contingent ways, I think that it is fair to say that Stephen Merritt, Superchunk, Unrest, Palace, etc. make music that "sounds white." I am not sure if this is a problem or not... but it certainly seems like something worth talking about. In fact, I think more frank and honest discussion of this topic might reduce the likelihood of further weird outbreaks of race anxiety in the form of libeling popular performers or attending tasteless rituals of racial simulation. Which, we can all agree, would be better.

TWO memes in ONE DAY? WTF?

2006-05-17T16:16:00.000-07:00

Two smart cookie bloggers you might like -- Sarah and Jessica -- did this meme, and well, I thought I'd do it to. Some of the questions are far out and self-indulgent, but such is the nature of questionnaires.

When did you last die?

-- The first of several far out questions. I'm going to say last night, when the SB and I saw what we now call "the suicidal tarantula." We noticed a giant hairy tarantula just cold chillin' in the middle of the road when we went out for our dusk-walk. We steered clear because we were a little afraid of its giant hairiness. When we came back s/he was smooshed -- obviously run over by a car. I felt bad that I didn't bother to move it when we saw it, because it did occur to me that it might get run over just hanging in the middle of the road like that.

What gets you out of bed in the morning?
-- Weekends: coffee, and if I've recently been to the store with the yummy apple-lemon-ginger juice, a.l.g. juice. Weekdays: the fear that I should be awake and taking care of something like answering e-mails, filing paperwork for my job...basic anxiety stuff. I hate it.

What became of your childhood dreams?
-- They're still there -- a little bruised, but intact nonetheless.

What sets you apart from everyone else?
-- Another far out question. I empathize with animals so much that it can become disruptive, though I am sure there are others who experience this.

What is missing from your life?
-- organization

Do you think that everyone can be an artist?
-- I think everyone is an artist. But the whole "artiste" label thing is problematic.

Where do you come from?
-- I was born in WISC but I spent my formative years in SC.

Do you find your lot an enviable one?
-- yeah. I'm hella lucky.

What have you given up?
-- shrinking

What do you do with your money?
-- most of it goes to bills and groceries. Also books and art supplies and lip gloss.

What household task gives you the most trouble?
-- all of them. I hate housework. But if I had to single out one it would be dishes.

What are your favorite pleasures?
-- walking and looking at plants and animals, looking at art, getting massages, making out, coffee

What would you like to receive for your birthday?
-- a desk with a thirty-fifty drawers and a HUGE workspace

Cite three living artists whom you detest.
-- See "annoying boys of the week"

What do you stick up for?
-- girls, boys, women, humans, animals

What are you capable of refusing?
-- "thrill seeking" activities, i.e. skydiving, bungee jumping, extreme physical challenges

What is the most fragile part of your body?
-- my eyes

What has love made you capable of doing?
-- hanging up the hang ups

What do other people reproach you for?
-- not calling often enough, not picking up after myself

What does art do for you?
-- Makes me feel hopeful, inspired, humble

Write your epitaph
-- be nice

In what form would you like to return?
-- a shih tzu or a barn swallow

and you?

Music Nerd Meme from N.H.

2006-05-17T14:51:00.000-07:00

The question: If you were asked to curate All Tomorrow's Parties, who would you invite? (limit 15 bands).

Since this is a festival, my choices are shaped by who I think would be most fun to hear live...

M.I.A.
Tribe Called Quest
Le Tigre
Missy Eliot
Lady Sovereign
Madonna
Morrissey
Sonic Youth
Sleater Kinney
New Order
Jawbreaker
De La Soul
Bjork
Deerhoof
Jay-Z

See N.H.'s answers at You're Nobunny Til Somebunny Lurves You

Updates and Trivial Drivel

2006-05-11T22:20:00.000-07:00

Hey Chickadees. Sorry for the low verbal output. All my creative energies have been occupied by poetry and fun new software, and I've been making poems that weeble-wobble and ripple and tipsy-turvy curve. Every letter and word should be spreadable. mmm...yummy. I want to make poems you can walk through -- letters suspended from the ceiling, the floor lit up with word-tiles billie-jean styles. A disco letter ball that spins the alphabet round like a kaleido-whirl of glitter.

What's going on in the world of pop culture? Rihana has a cool song that remixes a bit of "tainted love," a song that -- when I was eleven years old -- seemed perfect for the tap numbers I choreographed in our garage (oddly, my mom couldn't stand the sound of the tapping in the house).

I really miss MC Lyte.

What the fuck was up with the Gilmore Girls finale? I think the Palladinos sabotaged that shit so it would look like whoever took over the show messed it up. Nice try Palladinos -- I'm on to you. I mean, why else would you mess up what was once an AMAZING show. I know I've talked about this a million times before, but every time I see a season one episode it opens the old wound. All I can say is thank jesus for Veronica Mars.

And Top Chef? Did anyone see that reunion. CRAZY. And the real housewives? Watching Bravo is practically like taking peyote this days. What a loop-to-loop. Which reminds me, if you are ever bored you should check out the comments on our long ago post about meet the barkers -- it's a kentucky fried biscuit.

My new tv girlfriends are four of the women from Big Love. I love Chloe Sevigny's Nikki (so sneaky!). Sullen teen daughter Sarah (Amanda Seyfried) is the bomb. VM never had enough of her. And creepy Roman's shrewd and calculating teen wife Rhonda (played by Deveigh Chase, aka that creepy girl from The Ring... known around here as i-pod girl 'cause she steals Sarah's i-pod) totally rocks. And Sarah's goody-good friend Heather (former tv girlfriend Tina Majorino, aka Mac from VM) brings the much needed lesbian undertones to her scenes with Sarah. The friendship b/w Sarah and Heather is one of the most accurate, subtle representations of teen girl friendship I've ever seen. Now, after all this gushing you probably think I love the show. Let the record show that I HATE BILL, and think he is SO BORING, and that his whole story is so trite and predictable. But (most of ) the WOMEN on this show are really interesting and make it well worth watching.

Here is a two sentence abstract of a post I never wrote that was going to be called "Against Achievement": Is anyone else, like, so over achievement? Who the fuck cares?

I'm a sucker for a very obviously overpriced product: Vitamin Water. The fruit punch flavor? Delish. The SB likes Formula 50.

We're moving to California!!

We've Been Kickin' It Here for a Year, Yo

2006-05-07T15:18:00.000-07:00

Go Fluffy, it's yo birfday...

The Long Telegram has a Myspace. Check it.

Vintage Ads From Ladies' Home Journal (1959)

2006-05-03T22:47:00.000-07:00

Concrete Poetry...

or Period Romance?

Update on Hormonal BC for Men

2006-05-02T23:22:00.000-07:00

I talked about this before .

From the BBC:

While female treatments suppress ovulation, sperm production can be prevented by giving the male hormones androgen and progestagen.

These can either lead to no sperm being produced in semen, or very low sperm counts too low to lead to conception - fewer than three million sperm per millilitre compared to a fertile level of 20 million.

and then:

He said research carried out by his team, looking at couples in Edinburgh, Africa and Asia, had found the majority of men would use hormonal contraception - and the majority of women would trust their partners to do so.

However, far fewer women said they would trust men in general to use the contraceptive.

Toni Belfield, of the Family Planning Association, said: "It's important that research continues to provide a range of options for both men and women in order that good confident choices can be made.

****FLUFFY**DOLLAR$$$****