Q&A
5 questions from sadunreadissue
1. Can I please have a personalized book recommendation (other than JLS)? Thanks!
I can’t remember if I recommended this already but The Archivist by Martha Cooley. Love, books, madness, T.S. Eliot. swoon!
Music, Ecstasy, and the Brain: How Music Captures Our Imagination by Robert Jourdain. Psychoacoustics explained; the ear is a primitive yet deeply emotional organ.
Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography by Roger Shattuck. I really shouldn’t say….
Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey into Manhood and Back by Nora Vincent. Dyke Goes Guy. Hilarity Ensues.
The Great American Scapegoat by Tony Brewer. Holy shit, I’m on amazon!
And it’s not a book (technically a codex), but everyone should be reading the Gospel of Judas, which was recently rediscovered. Hot damn, it’s about time we got the straight poop on that story. The Gnostics were ahead of their time imho.
2. Please name an activity in Bloomington/central Indiana that everyone should do, but almost no one does.
Well, it’s usually crowded with rednecky families but I still think Splashin’ Safari at Holiday World is a hoot. Plus, Holiday World has some great, rickety wooden coasters. I’m definitely going at some point in the depths of summer.
3. What food do you eat when it's too hot to eat? You know what I mean.
About the only time it’s too anything for me to eat is when I’m too asleep. I’m a consumer! I still like hot/spicy food when it’s hot out, too. In fact, I think experts recommend that, or something. Internal temperature regulation or some such. Plus, summer is BBQ weather, so anything grilled and spicy, especially hot Italian sausage or brats, rawks. Also, watermelon, or any melon, is highly consumable when the weather is steamy. Mint Juleps are a great summer meal substitute as well.
4a. Whence on earth might Nick Moore and I know one another? It's going to drive me crazy.
Hmm, I only know Nick through the poetry scene, though I’ve tried to and would like to hang out with him in more social scenarios. He is dreamy, idn’t he? Be advised: when I first met him, I couldn’t tell him and his brother Ben apart to save my life. Only through prolonged exposure do their individual identities diverge, much like Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers. Actually more like Tom Sizemore in both Natural Born Killers and True Romance. So beware the doppelganger.
4b. Where is your favorite store (online or otherwise) for acquiring carnally appropriate toys and supplies? Or are you more of a DIY fellow when it comes to that?
I have several friends who are Pure Romance representatives. Wanna host a party? I’m also going to look into Priscilla’s over on west Third. I’ve heard good things. I am mostly, however, a DIY aficionado. In fact, I”M DIY-ING RIGHT NOW, BAYBEE!!ONE11BBQ!!!
5. Do you think that there are certain "-isms" of philosophy or personal politics that come with being a good person or one that will earn your respect? I'm not talking about self-identification, but how a person actually thinks and acts.
Well, that’s kind of a trick question, because -isms and -ologies and -osophies are all about identification and definition, not necessarily emotion or intention or even action. And feelings are not facts; they’re real but not necessarily factual. They can be deceptive and are always mercurial and complicated.
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (one of Ginsberg’s teachers) said, "Things are symbols of themselves," and I think that’s true. A chair still possesses chair-ness regardless of its title or how people feel about its aesthetics. I think that’s why the Mennonite/Amish/Shaker aesthetic resonates so deeply with me. I mean beyond the hotcha! factor. The utility of their material culture is so straightforward and simple. It’s art without being ART, and I find that stoically sexy.
Anyway, I think I’ve always been the person I am now, before I learned about all the different titles that can define me. And there are many, many other terms out there that have yet to claim me.
So how’s this: I like balanced people and, as we have seen lately, extremism just doesn’t cut it anymore. Probably never did. What makes sense to me then is altruism, but without being a doormat or a teat. I tend to shy away from pacifism because it sounds too much like passivism. I prefer a balance of love-yer-brother olde-hippie ideals and 21st-century snarky tough love. Also, a good amount of hedonism. I don’t know many well-rounded people who say no all the time, although I think people who over-self-identify with sluttism are just searching for acceptance. And a little nookie. All things in moderation … including moderation.
I think happy people are good people, but you have to be in touch with yourself to be truly happy or even to know what will make you happy, so individualism is important, too. It’s so much easier to help others if you already love yourself. Hell, it’s easier to talk to others if you’re not too concerned with how they might stab you in the back or something. Non-paranoid people rule. The geeks shall inherit the earth. A book is a book. And I love the scenes in The 13th Warrior when Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan (Antonio Banderas) learns the Northmen’s language by listening to them.
/scene
1. Can I please have a personalized book recommendation (other than JLS)? Thanks!
I can’t remember if I recommended this already but The Archivist by Martha Cooley. Love, books, madness, T.S. Eliot. swoon!
Music, Ecstasy, and the Brain: How Music Captures Our Imagination by Robert Jourdain. Psychoacoustics explained; the ear is a primitive yet deeply emotional organ.
Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography by Roger Shattuck. I really shouldn’t say….
Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey into Manhood and Back by Nora Vincent. Dyke Goes Guy. Hilarity Ensues.
The Great American Scapegoat by Tony Brewer. Holy shit, I’m on amazon!
And it’s not a book (technically a codex), but everyone should be reading the Gospel of Judas, which was recently rediscovered. Hot damn, it’s about time we got the straight poop on that story. The Gnostics were ahead of their time imho.
2. Please name an activity in Bloomington/central Indiana that everyone should do, but almost no one does.
Well, it’s usually crowded with rednecky families but I still think Splashin’ Safari at Holiday World is a hoot. Plus, Holiday World has some great, rickety wooden coasters. I’m definitely going at some point in the depths of summer.
3. What food do you eat when it's too hot to eat? You know what I mean.
About the only time it’s too anything for me to eat is when I’m too asleep. I’m a consumer! I still like hot/spicy food when it’s hot out, too. In fact, I think experts recommend that, or something. Internal temperature regulation or some such. Plus, summer is BBQ weather, so anything grilled and spicy, especially hot Italian sausage or brats, rawks. Also, watermelon, or any melon, is highly consumable when the weather is steamy. Mint Juleps are a great summer meal substitute as well.
4a. Whence on earth might Nick Moore and I know one another? It's going to drive me crazy.
Hmm, I only know Nick through the poetry scene, though I’ve tried to and would like to hang out with him in more social scenarios. He is dreamy, idn’t he? Be advised: when I first met him, I couldn’t tell him and his brother Ben apart to save my life. Only through prolonged exposure do their individual identities diverge, much like Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers. Actually more like Tom Sizemore in both Natural Born Killers and True Romance. So beware the doppelganger.
4b. Where is your favorite store (online or otherwise) for acquiring carnally appropriate toys and supplies? Or are you more of a DIY fellow when it comes to that?
I have several friends who are Pure Romance representatives. Wanna host a party? I’m also going to look into Priscilla’s over on west Third. I’ve heard good things. I am mostly, however, a DIY aficionado. In fact, I”M DIY-ING RIGHT NOW, BAYBEE!!ONE11BBQ!!!
5. Do you think that there are certain "-isms" of philosophy or personal politics that come with being a good person or one that will earn your respect? I'm not talking about self-identification, but how a person actually thinks and acts.
Well, that’s kind of a trick question, because -isms and -ologies and -osophies are all about identification and definition, not necessarily emotion or intention or even action. And feelings are not facts; they’re real but not necessarily factual. They can be deceptive and are always mercurial and complicated.
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (one of Ginsberg’s teachers) said, "Things are symbols of themselves," and I think that’s true. A chair still possesses chair-ness regardless of its title or how people feel about its aesthetics. I think that’s why the Mennonite/Amish/Shaker aesthetic resonates so deeply with me. I mean beyond the hotcha! factor. The utility of their material culture is so straightforward and simple. It’s art without being ART, and I find that stoically sexy.
Anyway, I think I’ve always been the person I am now, before I learned about all the different titles that can define me. And there are many, many other terms out there that have yet to claim me.
So how’s this: I like balanced people and, as we have seen lately, extremism just doesn’t cut it anymore. Probably never did. What makes sense to me then is altruism, but without being a doormat or a teat. I tend to shy away from pacifism because it sounds too much like passivism. I prefer a balance of love-yer-brother olde-hippie ideals and 21st-century snarky tough love. Also, a good amount of hedonism. I don’t know many well-rounded people who say no all the time, although I think people who over-self-identify with sluttism are just searching for acceptance. And a little nookie. All things in moderation … including moderation.
I think happy people are good people, but you have to be in touch with yourself to be truly happy or even to know what will make you happy, so individualism is important, too. It’s so much easier to help others if you already love yourself. Hell, it’s easier to talk to others if you’re not too concerned with how they might stab you in the back or something. Non-paranoid people rule. The geeks shall inherit the earth. A book is a book. And I love the scenes in The 13th Warrior when Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan (Antonio Banderas) learns the Northmen’s language by listening to them.
/scene