Free Lunch Isn’t Cool, So Some Students Go Hungry→
Lunchtime “is the best time to impress your peers,” said Lewis Geist, a senior at Balboa and its student body president. Being seen with a subsidized meal, he said, “lowers your status.”
This is why people hate student body presidents.
Bryan Klausmeyer Proposal: Manifest Destiny Dining
Posted at 3:49 PMWhen you are dining with a friend or new acquaintance, slowly push your silverware, napkins, and plates outward, expanding your borders. Once territorial dominance has been established, continue dining at your leisure. Do not cede territory to shared appetizers or bread baskets.
If you attempt this, please let me know.
Mark Elliot Cullen “Woman as a Symptom of Man”→
Interesting piece on a new movement led by Dr. Leonard Sax promoting single-sex education in public schools. Sax basically argues that “Girls and boys play differently. They learn differently. They fight differently. They see the world differently. They hear differently.” I’m not even sure I would disagree with this proposition, but it seems to me a logical fallacy to then essentialize these differences and institute them along quasi-segregationist lines, rather than understanding them to be the result of a curved, masculine social space, of an imbalance already playing itself out in the construction of gender identity and even sex itself.
It also seems like a bad idea to relegate children to the position of objects in need of techno-biological administration, as is the case with the application of focus-enhancing drugs, as well as this new system which attempts to turn cognitive science data into an ideologically suspect socio-political agenda. It comes as perhaps no surprise that the movement is supported by No Child Left Behind.
I would urge all socially conscious cognitive scientists to give this material a second look.
National Security… Serious Business→
A wonderful bit of FUD released by the Clinton campaign today:
Here is Obama’s response. The telephone has been replaced with a gritty, battle-hardened vet:
Both, of course, represent the kind of watered down “feel good” politics we’ve become accustomed to. So how do they stack up against national security ads from other eras? Take, for example, this epic Lyndon Johnson ad from 1964 (he was running against Barry “Shakespeare” Goldwater):
And lastly, here’s a great clip from Mr. Show:
(Via The Caucus.)
On Television, Interpellation and the big Other
Posted at 1:43 AMIt is practically a given that every person living in a modern, first-world society owns a television — and not just one, but many. There are exceptions, of course, but I think this is a fairly uncontroversial claim. Most television is quite awful, barring, at the moment, The Daily Show & Colbert Report, Nip/Tuck and The Wire. Again, probably an uncontroversial claim. Consequently, most of what I watch is strictly limited to what I’ve illegally accrued thanks to broadband and BitTorrent. Nevertheless, even though I objectively know that what I have on my computer will provide for me more entertainment if I desired, more intellectual satisfaction in some cases, or perhaps more bragging rights after having seen some “classic” film, the television continues to exert a rather fascinating power. Although I know that I will be subjected to commercials, terrible writing and a complete lack of satisfaction with whatever it is that I am watching (save the aforementioned shows), I am compelled to turn it on and watch.
What is this draw, this pull, if not the Lacanian notion of the big Other; that is, the symbolic fiction which structures “reality.” What watching a film on the computer lacks is precisely the overlapping of the gaze, the positing of “Others” who are out there watching the same thing that I am, thereby depriving my circumstance of its socially isolated character. Yet, these Others are themselves entirely fictitious: although it may very well be the case that other people are out there watching the same television show as me, my satisfaction deprived from this “direct coincidence” of gazes makes it no less perverted. To make it more concrete, what a computer viewing experience (or, for that matter, watching a DVD on one’s TV) lacks is precisely gaze qua objet petit a, what is “in the gaze more than the gaze” — a surplus enjoyment derived from a purely mediated experience through the Other’s gaze (much like when we hand in a paper to a professor that we’ve proofread hundreds of times, the experience of proofreading it after having handed it in provides more satisfaction because we experience the professor’s gaze…).
The anti-social experience of watching television is then transfigured into a social one by means of this overlapping of gazes, this positing of a fictitious “big Other.” However, the television also utilizes this enjoyment to its own ends; it barrages us with questions: do you need this? are you suffering from that? These questions have the effect of producing a feeling of impotence on behalf of the fewer, of a fundamental lack attributed to ourselves. This questioning (the Marxian dimension of which shouldn’t be ignored) is a crucial aspect of ideological interpellation: while advertising isn’t directed at us as particular individuals, we can’t help but feel that it is. “Do you need this?” “Me?” This “Me?” is precisely what produces us as subjects qua homo economus: the ephemeral nature of use-value is constituted upon this lack or void, as, again, objet petit a, what is in the object more than itself. This cyclical movement can thus be read as Freudian death drive: what drives us to watch TV is a desire to fill the void of a certain lack (boredom, anti-social feelings… typically a “negative” quality), and yet, what we get in return is our own message inverted: the “big Other” asking us what else we’re missing from our life that makes it feel incomplete, without ever mentioning it. The it, of course, being the pure medium by which interpellation is disseminated.
As I’ve said above, the big Other is defined as a symbolic fiction, that is, it doesn’t really exist. Nevertheless, it is what allows society to gain some ontological consistency: without this fiction, we would lose reality itself. The decline in symbolic efficacy under late capitalism can be linked to the gradual realization on the part of society that the “big Other doesn’t exist.” I think one way that television has reacted to this is through reality television. We all already know that everything on television is staged, scripted, etc., but with reality television things at first appear to be more “real,” more intimate, so we got back some of this closeness, this “social” quality. The phenomenological superimposition of gazes thus became reified within the television qua medium. But I think this explanation is extremely naïve. I don’t think that anyone actually thinks reality TV represents “noumenal,” unmediated reality. The way it functions is precisely that everyone treats it as a joke, as ridiculous kitsch. But wherein resides the enjoyment of reality TV, if it now already contains this ironic self-distancing? It is precisely because of this distancing, this absurd boundary between form and content, that those who watch it are able to take satisfaction in their intellectual superiority of having realized the “joke” — that is, that it isn’t serious at all and is completely staged (e.g., wrestling) — in contrast to the stupid Others, the subjects supposed to believe, and how they react to the show: with a child-like innocence of pure enjoyment, incapable of comprehending the “truth” behind the mask.
What reality television does is therefore constitute a new “big Other”: that of the innocent idiot, the uneducated troglodyte whose “pure enjoyment” constitutes the form of Absolute idiocy. Yet, this person “does not exist.” All people watching reality TV defer their enjoyment to this new symbolic fiction so that they, too, can partake in new forms of social abstraction, of mediated desire, of overlapping gazes. This is what we might call the “post-modern television experience,” the big Other reconstituted through this ironic self-distancing, of “not taking it seriously.” That’s why the condemnation of reality TV as not being “true to its title” or of being “exploitative” isn’t effective. It doesn’t reveal the viewer’s obscene enjoyment, not because of anything they’re “objectively” watching on the TV, but for WHOM their enjoyment is now being deferred to and, consequently, reconstituted through.
The world’s funniest man looks at “the world’s funniest art.”
Does everything mean something here… Is that just a gay bloke climbing a tree?
Fricke’s Picks: Horace Silver→
Great find from David Fricke:
In the Fifties and Sixties, pianist Horace Silver brought a Latin sway and cocksure funk to hard-bop jazz, first with the historic Jazz Messengers, then as a leader and composer of standards such as “Señor Blues” and “Song for My Father.” Live at Newport ‘58 (Blue Note) is a surprise from Silver’s early prime, a previously unreleased set of Silver leading a quintet in dynamic expansions of four tunes, including the cool brass glide and staccato-piano bite of “Señor Blues.”
Here’s a video of “Señor Blues.”
Proposal: Steam Cleaner
Posted at 7:02 PMWhen you are in a clothing store, ask a salesperson to steam your clothes with the in-store clothing steamer. Offer them loose change or a clothing item on your person if they refuse initially.
If you attempt this, please let me know.
Feed the world? We are fighting a losing battle, UN admits→
The Guardian:
The United Nations warned yesterday that it no longer has enough money to keep global malnutrition at bay this year in the face of a dramatic upward surge in world commodity prices, which have created a “new face of hunger”.
It’s really quite sad that while the Pentagon’s budget is a record $515.4 billion this year, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) is $2.9 billion. (Via I cite.)
Dylan, White Collaborate on Unfinished Hank Williams Track→
I’m looking forward to this album, which is a collection of Hank Williams lyrics without music performed by modern artists with Dylan producing. I hope to see a very eclectic mix as a “fuck you” to the limits of genres.
“I’ve recorded songs in my garage. Am I a ‘garage band’?” - Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour Friends & Neighbors
This part of the article was sort of heartbreaking though…
It’s an initiative that recalls the Mermaid Avenue albums by Billy Bragg and Wilco. On those records, Bragg and Wilco “finished” songs that had been left uncompleted by Woody Guthrie.
According to some reports, these Woody Guthrie lyric sheets were originally going to be given to Bob Dylan. Woody’s daughter, Nora, changed her mind after hearing that Dylan had appeared at a concert for the Pope - an act she deemed contrary to her father’s politics. Bragg was approached instead.
Was intolerance compatible with her father’s politics?
“A sexy notebook that businesses can actually use.”→
With the obligatory acknowledgement of sounding like an Apple fanboy (yes, I enjoy Apple’s more than PCs), what exactly makes this computer more feasible for business use than the MacBook Air? Granted an ethernet port is a must for old networks but that seems like a niche, and a disappearing niche at that.
It has a DVD drive? How is that tied to business again?
And for all we talk about people moving to streaming video, the fact is, I can’t remember the last time I took a cross-country flight without someone watching a DVD near me.
Remember, “Business.”
Besides, I can’t remember the last time I took my laptop on a flight and used a DVD. It’s much more efficient for battery life to just rip it the night before, or to just play downloadable content.
Stuff White People Like Suggestion: Stuff White People Like Blog
Posted at 3:42 AMWhite people like the site Stuff White People Like. They like putting it on their blog and giving a short analysis as in these examples:
Brilliant and self-conscious or racist* and simplistic? *Note: I don’t mean that it’s racist against white people. That’s… ridiculous.
And…
Stuff White People Like is a fantastic blog that pokes fun at the social and consumption habits of affluent, white yuppies and hipsters… Like Homer Simpson once said, it’s funny ’cause it’s true.
Some white people just like to mention it, even though they’re linked by all the other blogs for all the insight they provide.
- Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish:
A new blog. An excerpt: …
Most importantly, white people like to link to Stuff White People Like because it removes them from the position of ridicule as subject and places them in the power role of evaluation as commentator. White people just like pretending they’re above it all…
But yeah, it’s also a hilarious blog. And I think that my analysis should be given special place among the others since It’s a meta analysis. I’m not white people!
On the subject of Bette Midler…→
Jason Hartley’s got all the answers to my pressing questions. I asked, why is Bette Midler always getting tangled up with Advanced artists?
I’m not totally sure about her. The Advanced do love her, but the Advanced often love those who are not Advanced. I think, though, that there is some Advancement in her and at the very least she would understand what it is to be Advanced. She’s also quite bawdy at times.
If you don’t know what Advancement is by now, you should really get on it and read the Advanced Theory Blog.
Walking the Earth With My Little Donkey Judas→
There’s something about this story I really relate to.
JONATHAN DUNHAM is walking the earth. Assisting him in this endeavor is his donkey, named Judas. They have stopped to rest for a few days in Colinas de San Lorenzo, a slum in this dusty town on the cattle-raising plains of northwestern Venezuela.
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