SkidMarquez

New INVASION video

2009-11-04T11:17:00.000-08:00

They released an album in October of this year, still sweet.

INVASION - Spells of Deception from Marek Steven on Vimeo.

March 4 Strike and Day of Action To Defend Public Education

2009-10-31T10:46:00.000-07:00

On October 24, 2009 more than 800 students, workers, and teachers converged at UC
Berkeley at the Mobilizing Conference to Save Public Education. This massive meeting
brought together representatives from over 100 different schools, unions, and
organizations from all across California and from all sectors of public education ?
Pre K-12, Adult Education, CC, CSU and UC ? to "decide on a statewide action plan
capable of winning this struggle, which will define the future of public education
in this state, particularly for the working class and communities of color."

After hours of open collective discussion, the conference democratically voted, as
its principal decision, to call for a statewide Strike and Day of Action on March 4,
2010. The conference decided that all schools, unions and organizations are free to
choose their specific demands and tactics ? such as strikes, walkouts, march to
Sacramento, rallies, occupations, sit-ins, teach-ins, etc. ? for March 4, as well
as the duration of such actions.

We refuse to let those in power continue to pit us against each other. If we unite,
we have the power to shut down business-as-usual and to force those in power to
grant our demands. Building a powerful movement to defend public education will, in
turn, advance the struggle in defense of all public-sector workers and services.

We call on all students, workers, teachers, parents, and their organizations across
the state to endorse this call and massively mobilize and organize for the Strike
and Day of Action on March 4.

Let's make this an historic turning point in the struggle against the cuts, layoffs,
fee hikes, and educational segregation in California.

To endorse this call and to receive more information, please contact
march4strikeanddayofaction@gmail.com and consult www.savecapubliceducation.org

Spring Statewide Conference
The next Statewide Conference was called for Spring 2010 and will be held in
Southern California. We hope that the upcoming Conference can move forward in
democratically deciding on unifying demands, as well as build for the statewide
actions on March 4. The exact location and date are TBA and will be sent out ASAP!

Demands
Throughout the day of the October 24 Conference, individuals and organizations had
the opportunity to raise the demands they felt were most crucial to this struggle.
All written and spoken demands are compiled in the document ?Demands 10/24/2009?
attached to the original email. We hope that the upcoming Spring Conference can move
forward in democratically deciding on unifying demands for the statewide actions on
March 4!

Coordinating Committee
A volunteer coordinating committee met after the conference. To join the
Coordinating Committee listserve ? oct24coord@lists.berkeley.edu ? please contact
oct24list@gmail.com if you would like to be added to the email list.

We encourage other individuals and activists to join the coordinating committee. It
is open to all!

The next in person coordinating committee meetings will be on November 7th at 1pm.
NorCal Location: San Jose State; SoCal Location: TBA by participants from the
region. Details will be sent out ASAP!

Latino Popular Music Cultures

2009-10-26T06:47:00.000-07:00

So in order to diversify the offerings of my U.S. Latino Lit. course and to touch on some different cultural productions, I've decided to have my students acquaint themselves with some of the dominant trends in U.S. Latino music over the last hundred years or so. Since muxtape no longer exists, I thought I would post some of the songs on the mix I am making them.

"El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez"

Corridos were musical forms produced in the border zone between United States and Mexico used to carry news, gossip, etc. from town to town. This one depicts the resistance of Gregorio Cortez to the brutality and murderousness of the Texas Rangers toward the native Mexican population:

These forms of corridos were replaced in the contemporary moment with Narcocorridos which depict the heroism of drug-runners between Mexico and the United States (see Los Tigres Del Norte, which I've posted earlier).

Perez Prado "Que Rico el Mambo"

This form is Cuban in origin, but Mambo in general was not a phenomenon that really caught on in Cuba. It exploded in the U.S. fostering several films produced in Hollywood around the Cuban-American relationship, and shuttled Desi Arnaz (of I Love Lucy Fame) to stardom. This is by far the most popular Mambo tune in the United states:

Daddy Yankee - "Gasolina"

Representing the explosion of the Reggaeton phenomenon, a sort of Latino Hip-hop constructed around almost exactly the same beat/time signatures, the hit Gasolina:

Abe Vigoda - "Skeleton"

Mexi-American kids from Chino producing tropical punk, of L.A.'s The Smell scene fame:

Diplo - "¡Soy Cumbia!"

Although Diplo is not Latino, he is responsible for circulating historical and current trends in Non-Western music in the United States and Western Europe. This mix from his Mad Decent radio show/podcasts features the 1970s(?) Afro-Columbian trend of Cumbia music.

Los Crudos - "That's Right We're That Spic Band"

Hardcore legends of Ecuadorean and Chicano origins. I've embedded the video for Martin's (the lead singer) famous but now out of print documentary of Latino Punk/Hardcore called "Beyond the Screams."

Miyata Bicycles

2009-10-26T06:17:00.000-07:00

I admit I am not an adept bicycle mechanic but with the help of friends, a book I got from five for the winter holidays last year, and Pittsburgh's FreeRide I've been able to learn a few things that have saved me some money on repairs. Also, my friend Jess and I assembled her miyata bicycle together as well, giving me a pretty decent sense of the process.

So a few years ago I purchased a purple Miyata bicycle frame for which I have only just begun to buy parts for. The confusion of the whole thing, because I want to assemble the bike myself, is what parts actually will fit on a frame that is almost 10 years old (my current ride has a 1960s steel Puegeot frame, which is rather heavy despite all the light parts I've added).

I discovered this blog to help me search for parts. It is a series of scanned catalogues from Miyata bicycles that allow you to see the original parts with which the bicycles were outfitted. Also it supplies the following information, that during WWII Miyata was a gun and ammunition manufacturer in Japan, and afterward converted to a bicycle producer, with some of the tubes on the frame matching the shape and size of former gun designs.

Mistabishi--Printer Jam

2009-10-20T08:20:00.000-07:00

Perhaps its because the only work with a computer I do involves the internet and of course a word processor that I enjoy this song. Or perhaps it is because my own reified consciousness wants to aestheticize that which is symbolic of alienating and poorly remunerated labor. Whichever the case, I like this video forwarded to me by friend Edgar Um

Cuban-American Politics

2009-10-19T13:00:00.001-07:00

So since I've been doing a great deal of work reading U.S. Latino literature, theory, and history I've come upon the fanatical elements of 1960s era Cuban immigrants/exiles to the United States. Many of these folks were directly funded in their immigration, often of bourgeois elements or middle class, highly skilled, and as their presence in Miami progressed they became recruited directly into the CIA. Actually, there is a CIA station at the University of Miami that contributes to this flow of people.

Often this generation of Cuban-Americans consider themselves exiles (as opposed to maybe those of the Mariel boatlift era, who were largely motivated to leave for economic reasons), and they orient their politics around "lo que dejé"--what I left behind. The Cuban communist/Castro regime dispossessed the enriched elements (the Criollos) of Cuba instating such "draconian" policies as seizing the properties of those who owned more than one residence, to solve housing shortages in the country. The Cuban-Americans of this generation want those properties, along with their nationality returned to them.

This persistent grudge has enabled some rather unsavory political moves by this U.S. funded exile group (see the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act) including voluntary involvement and attempted-invasion/coup during the Bay of Pigs fiasco, some presence inside the Watergate scandal, working against Communist groups within the U.S. and Latin America, the fatal bombing of a Chilean ambassador to Washington, and bombings/terrorism within Cuba itself. In the below video a journalist recounts how a former CIA agent and anti-Castro Cuban-American Luis Posada Carriles was able to move between the United States and Cuba to cause bombings of the tourist industry and the intelligence agency cover-up of evidence regarding his case, with what appears to be some U.S. government supported mandate. He awaits a trial in Texas currently. This move by the exile community is actually a departure from the left-wing radicalism of earlier generations of Cuban-Americans who were often active in unionization, communist, and anarchist struggle.

Part 1

Part 2

What this reminds us is that to be minority does not equal subordination necessarily, or a standpoint against domination and capitalism. Instead, the case of the Cuban-American community is often one where the U.S. colludes with the national bourgeoisie and perpetuates clientelism in the Americas...NIMBY

Favorite Hangover Remedies.

2009-10-14T06:19:00.000-07:00

In honor of my vow to cease drinking like someone who wants to obliterate his life and start "getting serious" about exam reading (2nd draft of the petition is in the works), I've decided to post my favorite hangover remedies, none of which work 100% of the time. In the order they occur to me:

1) Green tea w/ roasted brown rice.
This is a particular form of green tea which you brew with roast brown rice kernels in the tea. It has a really pleasant savory flavor and can settle an upset stomach well with the added bonus of a little caffeine to wake you up. A nice alternative to coffee on hangover mornings.

2) Brunch.
Usually consisting of pure proteins, eggs (choice of meats, or false meats), fried potatoes, toast, etc. This is actually a great meal if you are worried about the shits post-drinking because both proteins and carbs help solidify your stuff and absorb excess stomach acid.

3) Whining.
This one only applies to those with a roommate or partner who is in close proximity. Whining can offer some relief only insofar as the other person will sympathize, accomodate you, or bring you things.

4) 3 large glasses of water before bed.
This can really work to prevent the negative effects of hangovers like headaches and soreness. Unfortunately, when I need it the most I am usually passed-out or too drunk to remember it.

5) More sleep.
I can't sleep in anymore. I am getting old. Alack.

6) Alka-seltzer.
I am often of the upset stomach, nausea, starving-on-the-edge-of-my-life hungover variety and this little remedy brings much relief and a dose of pain-killer to my dehydrated, alcohol addled body, without the stomach upset brought about by taking ibuprofen or aspirin in the morning.

7) Procrastination.
Avoiding all work and commitments can help you get over your hangover faster.

8)Fluids of Choice: Seltzer/Sparkling Water/Gatorade
For settling stomachs and rehydration. Gatorade's flavor of watered-down cool-aid isn't hard to swallow for the touchy, formerly inebriated, sensitive stomach.

9) Small Glass of Orange Juice Before Bed:
I've heard this gets your liver working overnight to process the alcohol. The jury seems to be out on this one.

Please, feel free to comment with your experience with these remedies and any suggestions of your own.

Also, here is video of a powerfully inebriated man trying to buy beer:

Mystical Pornography

2009-10-07T10:27:00.000-07:00

Japanese photographer Daikichi Amano renders some strange, beautiful, animist-seeming images interacting with the ancient art of Shunga, woodblock erotica.

See more images at Beautiful Decay Magazine or at his own website

Currently enjoying this tune...

2009-10-05T06:05:00.000-07:00

and also this one...

G20 Protest Recap

2009-09-25T08:21:00.000-07:00

So the opportunity to attend the G20 protests here in Pittsburgh was too much for me to avoid, particularly because I didn't have to travel anywhere to take part. I attended both days of protest, the first concocted by the Pittsburgh G-20 Resistance Project a group I suspect is one without any organic connections to Pittsburgh and its activist infrastructure. Its clear like most G20 hosting cities, Pittsburgh received a great deal of anarchist tourism, as we suddenly sprouted a wing of CrimeThinc and a group called Greater Pittsburgh Anarchist Coalition.

Anyway the first day I attended the "illegal march" beginning in my neighborhood (Lawrenceville), in a small park behind a middle school, that intended to head downtown and disrupt the arrival of various G20 dignitaries. Naturally, the police wanted to prevent this possibility at all costs. The city's idiot mayor fearing the worst (and instituting a city-wide campaign of fear-mongering) declared a state of emergency and deputized between 1,000-4,00 police officers to assist with arrests, and freeing up 1,000 beds in the city jail. But thanks to Pittsburgh's counter-intuitive topography and urban planning the large extent of protesters were contained within 2-3 hours without officially reaching the Strip District (the neighborhood between Larryville and downtown). Two friend attended the march with me, neither of which was interested in being arrested or brutalized by the police, and neither of which had ever attended a protest before let alone an illegal one, thus I had to shepherd my friends around safely. Here is some footage of the beginning of the march in Arsenal Park, which was apparently 1,000 strong:

Protesters clashed with police on several times in this march, in some cases attempting to build barricades against the police who responded with "sonic weaponry" and OC (apparently this is not tear gas). General disorganization, a lack of communication between parts of the march, and the lack of direction for the march's leadership produced some frustrating and ineffective results. Protesters were summarily corralled, gassed, beaten, and in some cases arrested. Community member response was clearly divided between African-Americans often offering food, support, bathrooms, and waving fists in the air whereas white male community respondents tended to see us as commies (which some of us were) and demanded that we "go get a job."

Apparently, simultaneous actions (and later that night) were occurring in Oakland (the university centered part of Pittsburgh) with much more arbitrary arrests, and police brutality in general. I missed most of this, but here is some video of police trapping University of Pittsburgh students in a stairwell and gassing them.

Here is another of a woman shoved twice by police officers and when she responds is promptly struck twice and arrested:

Also, police photo op with arrested student:

The news footage from our local stations revealed the self-contradicting and and low states of journalism and the anchors from various stations continued to frantically sell the city to uninterested G20 delegates over footage of police abuse.

The official march was as usual boring and easily contained by the rhetoric of free speech and the overall lack of media coverage despite the 10,000 mark, I believe, for march attendees. Highlights included a moment when protesters flicked off Fox News cameras chanting "Fuck Fox News" and the vegetarian tacos provided free of charge by Just Seeds.

Here is the Pitt Student's critique of the police response during the protests.

Overall I think the results of the protests are telling for the reasons Pittsburgh was chosen as the site of the G20 Summit: not because it is the model post-industrial city, but because its streets are difficult to know and navigate/provide ample opportunity of contain unrest, because the police force has few scruples about using unnecessary force to achieve their goals, and because this is not a major metropolis and thus lacks the necessary base for a large protest.

Dick-copter

2009-09-14T06:27:00.000-07:00

This is an excellent follow up to the video I previously posted. An excellent protest tactic.

1 Solution for Overpopulation

2009-09-09T06:12:00.000-07:00

As we all know, Malthus was wrong.

Semester Anticipation, Dread.

2009-08-17T07:50:00.000-07:00

The approaching semester and the persistent economic crisis have pushed some residents to rob arriving University students at gun-point. There has always been some animosity directed at the many schools here by local residents at the Universities that do not pay taxes in a city that is bankrupt, even as they swallow up more and more local property.

My own preparation for the upcoming semester is filled with some excitement but mostly dread. My exam committee was mostly on vacation whilst I submitted my first petition on-line (in early July) and I have only received comments back from my advisor (albeit they are not his typical life-ruining/sardonic fare, as in "I haven't a clue what you are saying here", but actually rather helpful). Not having my petition approved when having to potentially face faculty who will be insistent about my tardiness with the exam process in general (technically I should have submitted my answers and taken my oral defense by the end of September, this is not happening) is another blow to my already ailing confidence. Also, I am hustling to get my syllabus ready for my course on U.S. Latino Literature to which I am partially looking forward, and yet severe doubts about my capacities as an instructor undermine this excitement.

In other news trying to get my partner, Five, covered by my health insurance under the University's domestic partnership provision has proved to be more difficult that I ever expected, including having the obtain a legally binding "Will" and "Medical/Financial Power of Attorney," something we should do at some point, but are financial burdens just to make sure Five can get his medications and emergency services covered.

Gay Exorcism

2009-08-03T10:08:00.000-07:00

10 minutes of the exorcism of a "homosexual demon" caught in a sixteen year-old's body performed in a storefront church in Connecticut.

Martin Ramirez

2009-07-27T15:22:00.001-07:00

In my reading for exam I discovered the "outsider" artist Martin Ramirez (1895-1963), a Mexican-American who fled the Mexico during the revolution only to be diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and interned at Dewitt Hospital in California. His work is considered to be symbolic of the Latino immigrant experience. The repeated emphasis on depth and movement coupled with obsessive iconography makes it worth a perusal.

Toward the Production of a Rainbow Underclass

2009-07-22T12:23:00.000-07:00

1 in 100 adults in the United States has spent time in a correctional facility, and also more and more people are sentenced to life in prison 2/3 of which are Latino or African-American according to the New York Times.

The incarceration policies in this country not only function as outright class warfare, but more subtly as the physical and psychological control mechanism producing frustrated ex-convicts and chronic criminals without venues to channel unrest. This is fucking disgusting!

CORRECTION: 1 in 99.1 adults is currently in prison. For minority groups the picture is especially bleak. One in every 36 Hispanic adults is currently behind bars, while the number for African American men is one in 15. More stunning is the rate of imprisonment for black men aged 20 to 34, where one out of every nine is now serving time.

The Social History of Bread

2009-07-14T12:36:00.000-07:00

So after exploring frightening color advertisements here, I was subsequently forwarded this rather hilariously foppish renarrated history of bread, brought to us from the 1940s by Sunbeam.

Black Swans, Hedge Funds

2009-07-10T09:07:00.000-07:00

One other thing I learned at MLG this year (see post below) is that the way Hedge Funds make their money is through betting against events that are extremely unlikely. Dubbed "black swans" these type of events include things like when oil prices rise so will all other prices (at least this was the example I was given).

The problem with this form of institutionalized gambling is that disastrous events do happen.

Marxist Literary Group & PDX

2009-07-09T09:24:00.001-07:00

I haven't been blogging in a bit and that has partially to do with an effort to "get serious" this summer and get some reading done for my exams, but also because last month I spent a week in Portland, Oregon attending the Marxist Literary Group (MLG) annual summer institute. I also used this conference as a opportunity to visit with friends I hadn't seen in awhile and see old haunts from when I lived in PDX.

MLG seems to be divided into two "guards" of an older generation of people working to recuperate questions such as Stalin's "real" legacy, or resolving the real implications of various volumes of capital and a new guard largely focused on the question of immaterial labor, neoliberalism, and the bio-political. By far the more interesting work for me came from this "new" guard. There were some fascinating work of left political economy coming from people in literature departments like Berkeley and UC Davis. I saw an excellent paper on "centrist reason" by a graduate student at McMaster, which deliberated on the meaning of people from the Economist, Obama, and those neophytes of the techboom who imagine that the internet has reinvented politics completely. Another paper denied the use or meaning of "ideology" as false-consciousness for Marx.

Also, of note were some of the reading groups particularly one on the Wertkritik ("value critique") school in Germany. Although the discussion thanks to the UC students devolved into a deliberation of a figure I have not yet read, Moishe Postone, the readings themselves were rather interesting. Wertkritik asserts that capitalism has increasingly failed to integrate masses of unemployed laborers into the labor force, particularly in the "developing world." They also suggest that the conflict at the heart is not between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie but the forces of capitalism and those who desire the persistence of life. Capitalism in this reading is oriented against the persistence of life. There work was pretty engaging and scholars have just started translating their work, check out some links here (I particularly recommend Marx 2000).

As for Portland, I was able to visit with several friends, have several brunches which is precisely my favorite meal, and have Stumptown coffee fresh brewed every day despite my moratorium on daily coffee consumption. The Red Bicycle, an amazing breakfast place in St. Johns was probably my favorite brunch whilst in PDX featuring a tempeh-bacon avocado breakfast sandwich. I was able to see several people with whom I organized in a queer collective that occupied some time and a lot of head space for me whilst in Portland. Some of them have moved on to social work (or continued in it), or to having babies, attending graduate school. And a few have continued in political organizing around other issues not related to queer politics at all.

At the end of the institute following the BBQ I met a former co-worker from the group home at a lesbian bar for drinks, but my sleeplessness throughout the conference followed by my inability to sleep in without five in my bed, made me a sloppy/sleepy drunk. I definitely recall half-falling asleep while talking to her, and waking up quickly with the phrase "Hegelian madness..." something she would probably not know about or care to discover its true meaning. Anyway, a little embarrassing.

But Portland has changed a great deal (economically) and several good friends have moved away, so I feel settled in my narrow house in Pittsburgh with my boyfriend, and dog, even though we miss some of our friends there. Also, it is kind of a bubble in terms of the limitations people face in their daily lives be they queer, unemployed, etc. It is almost more important to be in a place where the conflicts at the heart of American society are a little more out in the open.

Death to the Franchise

2009-07-07T08:58:00.000-07:00

As much as I sometimes enjoy Michael Jackson's music (earlier better than later), I have to agree with what my friend Luis said,"Come on guys, it's not like it was Prince."

Anyway, Germaine Greer writes something excellent in the Guardian, on the issue, arguing that in death he forestalls aging and irrelevance.

Update: Hitler reacts to MJ's death.

Working Class Studies Conference

2009-06-21T12:59:00.000-07:00

So I attended a few sessions of the Working Class Studies Conference in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago, and I wanted to jot down a few observations.

Two of the keynote speakers were two high level union organizers who were discussing the possibilities for transnational work based organizing. Bill Fletcher, a former AFL-CIO organizer, made some really heartening comments particularly about how unions need to start rethinking themselves, i.e. organizational structures, but more importantly what are unions as political bodies, whom do/should they represent? This was his response to questions about sex workers and the increasing percentage of unemployed. He also indicated that unions need to have conversations that in the past one would be red-baited out of the room. For example, unions need to start talking about globalization beyond a kind of nationalist protectionism and in particular capitalism itself--its sustainability and worth. Both concluded that the union movement needs new blood, it needs young people to start infiltrating its ranks with new ideas and forcing older organizers to start retiring. For me these developments, if they are indicative of some larger change in the base of union opinion, were inspiring. Particularly because of my own lackluster short-lived attempts to organize a non-profit for developmentally disabled adults. I found that the organizing tactics that depended on a shared "shop floor" where woefully inept at organizing workers in scenarios where they are geographically contained but atomized into smaller cells.

I attended another panel in which a paper presented new forms of exploitation ("immaterial labor" as defined by Hardt & Negri?) by way of the internship, as essentially freeing business from having to pay workers for training.

Lastly, I attended two consecutive panels arranged around the same theme: Ontologies of Latin American Politics. These were by far the most engaging a difficult panels of the whole conference for me, partially because they would shift in an out of Spanish.

The one thing I found rather troubling was that several participants were overemphasizing the post-Fordist turn (a move away from centralized state planning in economic matters and assembly-line production) in the economies of Latin America. Whilst I think this was definitely clear in places like Argentine and Chile where the neo-liberal changes were imposed in the latter by an authoritarian government. One of the panelists persisted in getting into an argument with one of the older interlocutors both in discussing the political significance of the "death" of the political subject, i.e. the industrial worker. I have to say that any attempt to generalize the post-Fordist condition outside the West is highly suspect, particularly into places where the disaggregated Fordist manufacturing is dispersed into. Certainly, we also see mechanisms like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund training peoples of the "underdeveloped" world into neo-liberal mindsets instructing them to think of themselves like the subjects of game theory scenarios or performing "cost-benefit analysis" for all decisions, not to mention the Grameen Bank model of micro-capital. Despite these distributions the actual predominance of "immaterial labor" does not seem to fit economies still residing with neo-feudal arrangements, the fragments of the West's exported Fordism, and massive informal markets.

Overall though I was fascinated by panelists addressing different elements of this question of the ontology of politics in Latin America, in particular was a paper discussing the development of ideas of "human capital" in Chile, and the necessary rejection of humanism when new labor practices obliterate the difference between "meaning" and "action." Another paper attempted to reject the neo-Hegelian strain of some contemporary Marxisms, arguing against considering the present as "radical negativity" and instead in terms of "ontology," a theory of being in order to offer critiques of things like the bureaucratic classes. The connection between the reasoning here was not altogether clear to me , but it was a surprisingly cogent response to the persistent pull on Hegel as the sort of axiom by which Marx becomes a better philosopher.

MC Hammer Nostalgia

2009-06-09T08:55:00.000-07:00

1st: a video much discussed by a friend on a recent visit to Portland of MC Hammer thrashing about his nether parts in a speedo for all to see, in his attempt to adapt to the predominance of gangsta rap: "Pumps in a Bump" (apparently banned on MTV). Actually, I think Hammer's mistake here with the speedo, the invitation to fixate on his endowment, indicates his incommensurability with gansta-rap as whole given its emphasis on a politicized economically motivated violence and deep urban alienation.

MC Hammer - Pumps in a Bump
by Discodandan

Also, "Can't Touch This" inspired dance in a LA shop vending "skinny jeans."

Google Phone

2009-06-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

I just purchased this phone just as it was becoming obsolete,

but I don't care I fucking love it. It is definitively good to be able to access maps when you are lost (as I could have been last weekend in Chicago), access the internet when you have questions, and text with more efficiency and accuracy.

Also it is the closest I will get to Penny's computer book from Inspector Gadget.

Comprehensive Exams Update

2009-06-08T08:21:00.000-07:00

So I haven't been blogging a great deal recently because I have been partially immersed in reading and compiling work to put together a decent proposal for my exams. I've added a new committee member who actually specializes in U.S. Latino Literature. She is a Cubana woman who has a great deal of animosity for the Cuban Americans who fled immediately following the revolution. As a result she has written extensively on Cuban working class theater in Florida, that was much more radical than the moneyed Cuban voting block, consistent Republican party supporters. She is also loquacious as hell, and has regailed me with hilarious stories about her youth and assimilation and about the faculty at my university.

This preparatory work for my exams is taking much longer than I and my committee had anticipated. My delay is a large degree to do with the massive amount of anxiety I've built up in relation to the project. Historically, I feel as if I've been judged as valuable only to the degree of what I know. This process essentially tries to measure my knowledge base in a rather qualitative way. The problem is that I am a new interlocutor into this "field" overall (I've spent too much time in graduate school taking courses on early materialism, and film), my advisor (although challenging and brilliant) is terrifying in his ability to kick the legs out from under any project, my friends/colleagues who have taken the exam recently have all emerged exhausted and dehumanized, and I cringe at any sort of evaluation of this form. I am also coming to terms with my general anxiety disorder which is something that I've been trying to deal with in a serious way through therapy in the last year.

Although I am starting to get my anxiety under control to some extent, I frequently find myself turning toward internet, cleaning, pornographic, and dog related distractions in order to procrastinate and forestall the coming anxiety attack about this whole process.

(here's what it looks like)

Hopefully, by the end of the week I will have a presentable draft ready to go out to my committee so I can begin reading in a significant way.

"Dick in a Mousetrap"

2009-05-20T08:42:00.000-07:00

So recently, I attended my first hardcore show in at least a year at a local venue called the Nerve which was surprisingly quality. Not that I have time to keep up anymore, graduate school has pretty much killed my ability to remain culturally literate (at least in the contemporary). Also attractive hardcore boys who all homosocially mingled and meddled with each other (one running around in a full spandex skiing outfit) reminded me of why I moved to Portland in the first place--because in contrast to what the Christian Right claims it is incredibly difficult work to "convert" the straights (a few tips on this from vice)

Two bands that stuck out to me were Drunkdriver a kind of drudgy punk without too much of the stereotypical sound that tends to make the Crusties wet,

and also Realicide, a kind of industrial, gabber, noise-punk take on hardcore. Realicide was incredibly sincere and kept invoking us to rennovate our lives in opposition to the system, which made me nostalgic for days of anarchism, vegan potlucks, and endless insider jokes.

(note: the DrunkDriver video is the live performance of a single song, the Realicide video is a full set on this show entitled Debunk Punk).