78uuu lumière des étoiles

Dusty:Starlight:Culture



don't - just don't
2005-05-26   12:26 p.m.

What the ????....????. I really really really really don't get Texas. I guess I never will. Creepy: nouveau Victorians. With a Southern drawl.

I was listening to the band James the other day - most specifically their song "Laid". This was changed to "Raid" on US radio stations, since there couldn't be any reference to sex or sexuality. Similarly, references in the song to sexuality or the biggest no-no, an orgasm, are removed or bleeped out. The song and album were released the same year as Tupac's "Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z." and Snoop's "Doggy Style". While both certainly had to fight their own battles against various forms of censorship, references to violence against or degradation of women flowed freely. So let's review. Sex, orgasms: Bad. Thank god the government is there to protect our ears from this kind of smut.
Beating women, or attaching titles to them that not only marginalize their status but subordinate them even to animals: Fine. So long as you don't mention boobies or orgasms.

Oh, and all the talk about violence is fine unless it's directed at cops. Talk of killing cops: Bleep.
Talk of killing prostitutes/girlfriends/rival musicians or gang-members: No bleep.

I diverge from some of my fellow activists on the lyrics front; I believe many are socially irresponsible when it comes to propagating and perpetuating violence against and hatred of women, but I cannot ever advocate any form of censorship. What I can't stand about all of the above examples is the hypocrisy...but I guess I'm trying to make sense of something where no sensible pattern exists. I can't believe we still arbitrarily ban things because of someone's whim or fancy. Sexy cheerleading, indeed.

Last night at dinner, my friend Sherry told us all about her appearance on a call-in TV show on CN8. It's somewhat local to NY, though I don't know how true that is anymore since she told us the network shoots in Philly. Anyway, she was on to discuss racial diversity or some other such tired topic - the network recruited her because she just received her tenure at Rutgers, she's about to complete her manuscript, and she's only 31. Yee-haw.

She told us one of the guests, whose name I can't recall or am subconsciously blocking out to protect myself, was trying to introduce a bill that would make it illegal to speak a foreign language in public. Well great, there goes my opportunity to practice the next foreign language I try to learn. This woman also said that she didn't advocate or understand the purpose of hyphenated identities ("I'm Italian-American, I'm African-American," etc). She felt, Sherry told us, that "most of the countries problems" stem from this sort of fragmentation. As long as we would just consider ourselves to be Americans first, she said, we would be able to work together to solve all of our social ills.

Right, like hyphenation and people speaking Arabic or whatever are ruining the country. It's not corporations, absurd tax-laws, bankrupting social security, budget cuts to social welfare programs and education or depleting resources for schools. It's those damn Mexicans and their willingness to work any job for $3/hr. without any benefits. It's those sneaky Polish who just won't stop eating Polish food and reading Polish newspapers in their spare time.

Ok so the lady is a nutter - we've seen them before, and their song and dance is always exactly the same. But when I found out that she worked at a government body called the CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY and was chosen to represent the thoughts and ideas of the collective, I almost choked on my Rigatoni Leone. I'm guessing the Center for Democracy is just a nicey-nicey title that masks the true intentions of what really is a right-wing, anti-tolerance group, like the self-loathing and brainwashed Concerned Women for America? (If you get the chance, check out their hysterical [and I do mean hysterical - as in dillusional and paranoid] discussion of scientist and researcher Alfred C. Kinsey.) I have to look into it - and I've asked Sherry to follow up as well. I can't wait to see the tape of her. She said she didn't roll her eyes once, even when a guy called in with the ol' "but they're taking our jobs!! cliché. Sigh.

I'm happy to say that today I have the day OFF, as in truly off - no publishing work to do, no consulting, no papers to grade, no articles to write, no schedules to revise. Tee heeeee! I'm meeting my friend Paul later to borrow his DVD box set of season 3 of 24. Stupid friend at work lending me season one and telling me how much I'd like it. Now I can't stop. Although since I'm me and can't quite ever stop being me: I'm a little weirded out with the fact that every single minority female on the show plays a character who is a manipulative opportunist with absolutely zero ethics or empathy. A trifle disturbing. Maybe this will change with season three or four, but I seriously doubt it. This is FOX we’re talking about, after all.

Nonetheless, I shall pick up season three today and see my friend over coffee; and after that Nicole, Steve and I will make our way into Tribeca, where Bruno is playing tonight. Tomorrow I have to go into Astoria - I think - to pick up some more editing work to do, so today I'm just going to relax and finish Along the Inca Road by Karin Muller.

I think I'll make some cookies, too.

xo