Hey guys,

I just got back from an academic conference in Denver. While I was there, I thought about seeing if I could talk to anyone at the Good Samaritan homeless shelter to ask about the mystery man, but I was just too busy.

There were several things that made a big impact. The first was a presentation using the theoretical framework of Giorgio Agamen's "Homo Sacre" or "bare life," the life delegitimatized, abandoned by legal sanction and societal protection. The professor used the example of two groups of women to show how this abandonement is genderized and racialized: Phillipina domestic workers, and sex workers living in the downtown area, 500 of whom "disappeared" (it was later determined they were murdered) over a period of two decades. It was the most powerful presentation I've ever seen.

Another presentation was a proposal for research on public art... it reminded me sooo much of the stuff on this Banksy person. The person was from the UK, too. I'm going to email him. I got into a great discussion with a professor about the merits of interpretation and analysis vs "interpretation is the revenge of the intellect over art" and record-keeping vs ephemerality. It's one thing to think about stuff on your own, and quite another to talk about it with another person who is passionate, excited, and articulate.

I really liked being at this conference around 5,000 other intelligent people who get excited when you disagree, not necessarily because they want to argue, but because discussion and thinking and exploring and learning are exciting things. I was worried that I would be turned off by a lot of academic posturing and showing off, you know, but I really didn't see that. Especially the radical geography stuff, where people are passionate about social justice and exposing inequalities and discrimination. It was really really inspiring.

Downtown Denver was nice, too.

I made a typo-- I meant to say 50 women over two decades.

Sarah Devries was one of those women. After she disappeared, after her DNA was identified years later and she was confirmed dead, it was discovered that she had written a poem about the disappearing women from Vancouver's downtown. The thing is, the police were pretty much dismissing the fact that women were disappearing because they were sex workers. The police justified their laxness by saying the women were transient, and should just "call home". Women's families tried to reclaim them as people, by emphasizing that they were legitimate women because they were family members. While true that the women had families and people who loved them and missed them, this still does not get at the heart of the issue, which is that the women were dismissed because they were prostitutes. Well, it's really more of a multiple-layering of various kinds of discrimination: gender, race, poverty, class, etc.

Here is the poem written by Sarah Devries shortly before she disappeared, when presumably she herself was aware of the dangers facing female sex workers in downtown Vancouver...



Woman's body found beaten beyond recognition
You sip your coffee
Taking a drag of your smoke
Turning the page
Taking a bite of your toast
Just another day
Just another death
Just one more thing you so easily forget
You and your soft, sheltered life
Just go on and on
For nobody special from your world is gone
Just another day
Just another death
Just another Hastings Street whore
Sentenced to death
The judge's gavel already fallen
Sentence already passed
But you
You just sip your coffee
Washing down your toast.



She was a broken down angel
A child lost with no place
A human being in disguise
She touched my life
She was somebody
She was no whore
She was somebody special
Who just lost her way
She was somebody fighting for life
Trying to survive
A lonely lost child who died
In the night, all alone, scared
Gasping for air.




by Sarah deVries

This makes me think about the role of shame in silencing women.

On the flipside, a lot of younger women today will talk about sexuality and the utility of sexual attraction to gain power over men. I think that is kind of sick. I've attended classes where 18 year old girls talked about stripping as empowering. I think it was more the vacuous look in the girl's eyes than the idea that bothered me. I think objectification can be sexy, and being sexy can be empowering, but there's just something about flippantly dismissing meaning and ethics and intimacy that freaks me out.

Powerful stuff

There's even a new fad of striptease as exercise in the works. There's this softening up for insane exploitation going on. It's like Brave New World, except exclusively for girls. A young girl's line about sex as power is, in truth, a fear reaction. They are scared to seem prudish. At the same time they are embarassed to admit they are being exploited. It stems from the none stop sex-o-rama brow beating that's been going on for the last 6 or 7 years. There has to be a new women's movement. It's a tricky thing to do though, because censorship isn't any cooler a prospect. I think a pop art movement could forward the cause(and Others). The idea is to facilitate music, movies, books, theatre, and video games that are positive. No direct message, just kindness and good intensions. Simply usurp the current media mood by making exciting, quality entertainment and art. Young people are starving for this right now. They are lifting up rocks and looking down alleyways. If it's provided, they'll consume it instantly. It's like a damn that's ready to burst. If you have the means, take a swing at it with a sledge hammer.

Word

Actually, I really like the sense of scorn for mass entertainment and emergence of self-reliance over the last couple of decades. I'm sure there have always been people who felt this way, but it seems to garner some attention even with the mass media. The irrelevance of commercialized, mass-produced images... your favorite band local and playing in a small bar downtown... eschewing popular conceptions of "entertainment," and making your own.I think kids today may take it further. Anti-consumption. Anti-fame. Anti-media machine. I think that Banksy guy may have more relevance than is immediately apparent. Of course, these are not the people who made Britney Spears famous. So you are right about that waiting market, Mr Entrepeneur-- get busy!!

This reminds me of something my old roommate would recommend, instead of going out to listen to music or buying records, getting instruments and playing music yourself with your friends and family. It's kind of a throw back to older times, sitting on the porch and having a little jam session with neighbors. You can see something similar happening now on the net, people making their own music and sharing it digitally. It's nice to see things more harmonious here.

So why is this new fad of striptease as exercise bad exactly? It sounds fun. What about belly dancing? Is that bad? Don’t make me dance in a burka now! But it’s MY right to wear one, if I choose. Believe me Roy it is about power. We level that playing field anyway we can. And it is also about being female. I don’t wanna be a guy, sheeeeesh! Hey, do you suppose Ferengi women would do a reverse striptease and clothe themselves?

In any case, a new women’s movement will not make progress until men AND women alike begin to value women’s work, whether it is childcare, engineering, dusting, running a business, or stripping.

I agree with you Lulu. The idea is to stear them away from the mass media towards what you are talking about. Introduce the ideas and then hope you lose your audience! I'd like to get my art and entertainment from the best there are, no matter where their from. Luckily, the internet has made everwhere local.

Myself, I'm attempting to operate completely outside of the media. I am giving away my music. I don't record or photograph live shows.
No press kits. Other than performing and handing out music, I'm not even promoting. I want to see if I can develope a living naturally, growing an audience. So far so good, a little bit at a time.

Ever play Southern California?

"Introduce the ideas and then hope you lose your audience!"

Brilliant. But only if done with subtlety and respect for the audience. Otherwise asinine. Maybe some celebrities take their "celebrity status" more seriously than their fans.

Yes, disrespectfulness is the antithisis of the entire concept.

"Maybe some celebrities take their "celebrity status" more seriously than their fans."

I think any amount is too serious...

Celebrity is completely disassociated with art.
There are more non performing, creating, inventing celebrities. I can't wait 'til people start performing on my TV again. What about a song and a dance. For christ's sake someone juggle or something. If hear another Autotuned singer, I'm gonna shoot steam out of my ears.

Surely there is a smilie for that...





heh heh... well, maybe not quite.

Have you seen the movie "Smile." I stumbled on to it because I was going to the movies with my sister and there was nothing else worth seeing. We were the only two people in the theatre. I give it..

I just saw "Millions" last night. It was pretty good.

If anyone is going to go see "Millions," one thing that made the movie even more meaningful for me was the fact that I had come across a news article that day, on MIkhail Gorbachev's proposal to heighten awareness of water access for people around the world. He is proposing to make access to clean water and sanitation a basic human right, so that countries/governments are held accountable for it. I thought that was a revolutionary move. There are over 1.2 billion people in the world without access to clean water.

Hey, don't make me promote myself!

I should be through that way in the fall-winter this year.

I'll play an extra show in your living room, for real. I should do an aklives living room tour.

Awesome