What I did this week, week ending 4/14
Another excellent week. I like the LJ posting box better than that of tumblr, so here it is.
What I read this week:
Considered finishing "Infinite Jest" but really couldn't convince myself, too much violence against rats. I'm most of the way through and liked much of it, but can't handle anyone hurting a little animal. People, fine. Good. Dandy. Just don't make me watch it on a screen unless it's slow and knife-y because that's art I can appreciate if you let me warm up a little first. Animals hurt? Never, never, never, in any format.
Read the last two issues of Mother Jones-- the one about how poorly the GOP is doing this election (very poorly indeed, they are a garbage nightmare) and the one about the hell that is warehouse picking for online shopping (very hellish indeed. Buy local, except they get their stuff from the same goddamn warehouse. You can't win.)
Read a great collection of essays/poetry on the FTM and female-bodied genderqueer experience titled "From the inside out: radical gender transformation, FTM and beyond." Ed. Morty Diamond. I don't have a lot of tolerance for free verse (attention, young writers: I really like villanelles and will pay extra if you write me some. C'mon, please?) But most of the random free verse was pretty good, some of it with great rhythm. Some of the essays were excellent. What kept throwing me off was the lack of opening quotes and parentheses. It was bizarre and at first I thought I was reading some new typographical statement that I wasn't hip enough to catch. Anyway, it cleared some things up. One particular essay on Bowie and gender might make it to my clippings wall, which is a real thing-- some of you know, you've seen it-- and make me look a little serial-killery if you don't notice it's mostly poetry.
Reread "Crewel Yule," a needlecraft mystery, which follows some nice Minnesotans to a needlecraft convention where they buy embroidery supplies and solve a murder. I can't always be reading intense analysis of genderfucking! Give me a break.
Spent a great deal of time on articles about big data (it's a thing-- all the little online transactions of every day, recorded and analyzed. Didn't say it was a good thing, necessarily) and the 1940 census and its implications for personal privacy. And lots and lots of election reportage-- did you know the Gingrich campaign bounced a check for $500 in Utah? I live for these little schadenfreudey details.
New music: Suzi Quatro. YESSSSSS.
New places:
Saw the Gaultier exhibit. If I tell you what actually happens there and give a play by play (other than the intensely-beglittered frame I saw that I'll have to copy for myself) of everything we saw, it would ruin it. And this is coming from a person who doesn't really believe in spoilers. Anyway, you know how I get really down on human? Waste of bloody time, etc? The celebration of the human body vis-a-vis ridiculous clothes sort of fixed that. The ethnic appropriation-- problematic, yes, but done out of love it seemed, not in the spirit of the rip-off. One thing I noticed was the celebration of the female body-- I was lead to believe that fashion designers hated women, but this is clearly untrue, more so now that I can point to the example of Gaultier's acceptance of the human body as a canvas in all its forms. If that makes an sense.
How far did you swim?
51 plus 49 plus 34 is 124 which is four and 1/8th miles. I ought to have done the full six miles this week, but came home from Gaultier and my feet hurt so bad (three hours? how did we spend three hours in there?) that I couldn't consider running to make the 18 bus out to the pool.
What I read this week:
Considered finishing "Infinite Jest" but really couldn't convince myself, too much violence against rats. I'm most of the way through and liked much of it, but can't handle anyone hurting a little animal. People, fine. Good. Dandy. Just don't make me watch it on a screen unless it's slow and knife-y because that's art I can appreciate if you let me warm up a little first. Animals hurt? Never, never, never, in any format.
Read the last two issues of Mother Jones-- the one about how poorly the GOP is doing this election (very poorly indeed, they are a garbage nightmare) and the one about the hell that is warehouse picking for online shopping (very hellish indeed. Buy local, except they get their stuff from the same goddamn warehouse. You can't win.)
Read a great collection of essays/poetry on the FTM and female-bodied genderqueer experience titled "From the inside out: radical gender transformation, FTM and beyond." Ed. Morty Diamond. I don't have a lot of tolerance for free verse (attention, young writers: I really like villanelles and will pay extra if you write me some. C'mon, please?) But most of the random free verse was pretty good, some of it with great rhythm. Some of the essays were excellent. What kept throwing me off was the lack of opening quotes and parentheses. It was bizarre and at first I thought I was reading some new typographical statement that I wasn't hip enough to catch. Anyway, it cleared some things up. One particular essay on Bowie and gender might make it to my clippings wall, which is a real thing-- some of you know, you've seen it-- and make me look a little serial-killery if you don't notice it's mostly poetry.
Reread "Crewel Yule," a needlecraft mystery, which follows some nice Minnesotans to a needlecraft convention where they buy embroidery supplies and solve a murder. I can't always be reading intense analysis of genderfucking! Give me a break.
Spent a great deal of time on articles about big data (it's a thing-- all the little online transactions of every day, recorded and analyzed. Didn't say it was a good thing, necessarily) and the 1940 census and its implications for personal privacy. And lots and lots of election reportage-- did you know the Gingrich campaign bounced a check for $500 in Utah? I live for these little schadenfreudey details.
New music: Suzi Quatro. YESSSSSS.
New places:
Saw the Gaultier exhibit. If I tell you what actually happens there and give a play by play (other than the intensely-beglittered frame I saw that I'll have to copy for myself) of everything we saw, it would ruin it. And this is coming from a person who doesn't really believe in spoilers. Anyway, you know how I get really down on human? Waste of bloody time, etc? The celebration of the human body vis-a-vis ridiculous clothes sort of fixed that. The ethnic appropriation-- problematic, yes, but done out of love it seemed, not in the spirit of the rip-off. One thing I noticed was the celebration of the female body-- I was lead to believe that fashion designers hated women, but this is clearly untrue, more so now that I can point to the example of Gaultier's acceptance of the human body as a canvas in all its forms. If that makes an sense.
How far did you swim?
51 plus 49 plus 34 is 124 which is four and 1/8th miles. I ought to have done the full six miles this week, but came home from Gaultier and my feet hurt so bad (three hours? how did we spend three hours in there?) that I couldn't consider running to make the 18 bus out to the pool.