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Monday, 28 February 2005

  "Things You Can Find in a College Dorm" (Installment I)

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by: DJGroovySlug at February 28, 2005 15:21 | link | comments (11) things you can find in a dorm

Monday, 28 February 2005

Things I'm Excited About

 1. Me and my boyfriend's trip to NYC for Spring Break has just been amped up by last Friday's mail, in which came two tickets to "The View." I had sent away for them about three months ago, when originally my mother and I had planned on doing NYC together. My boyfriend is less than thrilled at watching 4-5 women discuss hormones and fashion for about an hour, but it's still cool to watch a live TV show being taped. Besides, I like "The View"....Either way, I'm just plain excited about going up to New York City and spring break in general.

2. I spent probably around eight hours (total, not consecutive) this weekend working on my digital slideshow from my study abroad in Egypt. I had to cut it into three parts just so the whole thing wasn't fifteen minutes long - it's about 170 pictures total. But I added some great Egyptian music and rearranged the order so it looks awesome! Of course, like all slide shows from travels abroad, no one else is interested except the person who actually went....so I will be forcing my slideshow on all unsuspecting victims throughout the next couple of weeks.

3. I've joined the Axis of Poetry through The Daily Blitz! So now, every Wednesday I will be posting a poem (not written by me, but from any source), just offering a little addition of culture and lyricism to the blogosphere. What does it mean to post poetry originally written for print publication within the digital world? Does the meaning or effect change? That's a question for this class...

4. George Mason to Open First International Campus in the United Arab Emirates-this is pretty exciting for us.  What will this mean for the future of GMU?  I'm thinking of the American Universities around the world: London, Paris, Cairo.  I wonder if this could somehow establish GMU as a powerhouse for middle eastern studies?  That would be cool, even if I'm graduating in three months....

5. And finally, in an attempt to have a minor theme (aside from the poetry thing) I have decided to start an irregular segment entitled "Things You Can Find in a College Dorm." (doesn't that sound like a category from Family Feud?) I was inspired by the pair of men's maroon briefs that hung from a pipe in the stairwell above our heads for about a week, which I failed to capture through film. However, the presence of new objects in the dorm has made me realize that college life has enough fodder for speculation and humor indefinitely. So today I present the first installment of "Things you Can Find in a College Dorm." 

 xxx, Luv, DJ Groovy Slug

by: DJGroovySlug at February 28, 2005 13:45 | link | comments (1) random thoughts, dj groovy slug travels

Saturday, 26 February 2005

I Like Art, Butt.... (hey, I just made a funny!)

"The Homeland Security Collection"

Okay, I understand what the guy is trying to do. I partially agree with his politics. But honestly. And does he not bear a striking resemblance to Nick Nolte, but fatter?
by: DJGroovySlug at February 26, 2005 01:54 | link | comments (3)

Thursday, 24 February 2005

Blogging as Social Action: Thoughts

As exemplified by my previous post (I Hate Ignorance) and the comments filed underneath it, I'm now totally fascinated by the power of blogs. Not only did the miffed gentleman who responded to my post bother to find out my name, what school I went to and basically look up every link and info about my life that was possible through my blog, he also put up MY OWN BLOG on his blog (with his own comments). Of course, because his blog gets a decent amount of readers (unlike my puny blog - a blog for school, no less!) I'm assuming I'll get comments, which I can't say I'm horribly excited about.

Do I regret starting all of this? Hmmm. it's funny what happens when you have nothing to do all day and spend the time surfing the internet. I think it's all kind of humorous though. If people do happen to find their way here, least I'm not complaining about my job or my friends and totally blowing things out of proportion. It's not as though I intend to change the world with my blog, in fact I'll probably forget all about it by the time summer hits. But I do think the best part about blogging is that it IS a good medium with which to have these types of conversations - any types of conversations at that - esp. as me and prev. miffed gentleman are in no way geographically close. But I'll definitely stop linking to other blogs now. ah well, que sera sera. the comment about the school was kinda harsh, though.

xxx, Luv, DJ Groovy Slug.

by: DJGroovySlug at February 24, 2005 18:55 | link | comments (14) dj groovy slug recommends, random thoughts

Thursday, 24 February 2005

I Hate Ignorance, or, Why Blogs Scare Me

(all hard core conservative right wings please avert your eyes)

http://dailyblitz.motime.com

Ladies and gentleman of the jury, I present: The Daily Blitz. A blog. Written by a man. A white man. A white man lawyer. His subheading reads: "One man's musings on wine, women and ordnance." Wow. He's cool. I bet he has a really big penis!
okay, enough being immature. but here are several things I found highly disturbing about the blog.

The most recent post (thur. 02/24/05) was about an essay the blogger recieved that was written by an army soldier, described by the blogger as "outstanding and insightful essay and, therefore, extremely politically incorrect." Hmm...Anywho, the blogger quotes specific parts of the article which make references to...wait, why let me tell you? let's post a quote too!
"They’re [Arabs are] conditioned to be herd animals, with the family, the clan, the (Arab) nation, and the Islamic ‘umma as different echelons of the herd. Combine this with the deliberate choice by Arabs to ignore facts, and these are people we are never going to be truly allied with."
That just screams insight! Wow he really nailed those towelheads! (please note my total sarcasm)

So the blogger's comments on the essay are as follows: "Leftists would have you believe that our soldiers in Iraq are ignorant, uneducated, murderous automatons who don't know any better but to follow the evil orders or the PNAC/Halliburton/Bushco axis of evil.  I'm here to tell you that the soldiers I know get it.  They understand the situation and the stakes.  "

I understand what the blogger is saying, because I know some leftists who say these things about the soldiers, which IS completely untrue (I, too, know some soldiers). However, when he says that the soldiers he knows "get it" and "they understand the situation and the stakes," he fails (like all right wing conservatives) to explain WHAT THE HELL IS AT STAKE!?!?!? That, god forbid, Muslim might spread to five hundred more people? That we continue to let these people live because a few of their radical islams happened to kill a few of us? I can think of a few times that radical fundamentalist christians have ruined whole civilizations (its called missionary work - think: africa and even america's own foundings as the spanish brought disease and death to the natives). WHAT EXACTLY IS THE WAR ON TERROR?!?!?! Isn't it rather like a "terrorist" to say "do what I say or we will punish you in some way or another"? (um, pres. bush to all of europe maybe???) should we be having a war against ourselves?

AAARRRRRRRGHHHHHHH!

I would post more on this guy except I would rather not waste my breathe or my own blog space to such negative energy (bad for the chi, you know). Let it be said that certain people should not be allowed public forums with which to spread the biases that prevent the United States from truly understanding why some people in this world can survive without the help of America.

xxx. Luv, DJ Groovy Slug

p.s. I actually found this guys blog because I was reading his comment to Kristen Hahn's new blog, Oh My God. I wonder how he found hers?
by: DJGroovySlug at February 24, 2005 15:28 | link | comments (7) random thoughts

Wednesday, 23 February 2005

Lexia to Perplexia: Umm....My Words Exactly (Part II)

(Click here for Part I) Okay, so the lexia to perplexia thing works here on a school computer.  My initial response is to say "No Comment" but I know I have to force myself to say something.  First, I love contemporary art and I'm really interested in what this could possibly mean for the "traditional" art form.  Obviously, with conceptual art, the nature of art as most people know it - characteristically aesthetic or representational - has changed a lot.  Plenty of people look at contemporary artists and claim that they just made some of this stuff up (who knew that one day paint splatters would be revered?).  That's partly how I feel about Lexia to Perplexia. 

But honestly, the idea of the viewer/reader creating the narrative really isn't that new or thrilling.  Those "Choose Your Own Adventures" worked on the same level.  Sculpture, especially contemporary sculpture (think: Minimalism) is art that is "created" based on the viewer's experience to the piece - if anyone saw the Dan Flavin exhibit last fall you would know what I mean.  I feel like Lexia takes this idea of "experience as created by the viewer" only a step further, where an entire universe is created out of words, images and interactions rather than simply an interaction between an object and the person.  But honestly, using big words and taking a bunch of lines out of context and shoving them around a flash website isn't exactly thrilling to the everyday reader.  Why does art/literature have to be inaccesible to be considered brilliant or revolutionary?

xxx, Luv, DJ Groovy Slug

by: DJGroovySlug at February 23, 2005 16:07 | link | comments dj groovy slug recommends

Wednesday, 23 February 2005

Hitch Spoiler

"Hitch" Spoiler (Warning Spoilers Ahead!)

We open with Hitch (Will Smith) explaining that no woman ever DOESN'T want to be swept off her feet and all her excuses ("i'm into my career," "it's not the right time...") are just a woman's way of protecting herself.  Hitch says he needs three dates and can get a girl to fall in love with a guy.  We see Hitch setup some couples, then we meet Sara, (Eva Mendes) who is a gossip columnist who happens to be following NYC celebirty heiress Allegra.  She is really "into her career") Then we meet Albert, who is in love with previously mentioned heiress Allegra; he is her accountant of sorts.  At the advice of Hitch, Albert creates a scene and suddenly quits his job (not part of the advice of Hitch) in front of Allegra who gives him her number.  Meanwhile Hitch convinces Sara to go out with him (they met at a bar) and she eventually agrees, but the first date is a bust. Albert and Allegra go out a few nights later, and Sara is yelled at by her boss for not being there to photograph Allegra...so she goes on a quest to find out how she didn't know about it and discovers the tickets to the event were given to Hitch.  She wasn't going to call back Hitch but now he is a lead to Allegra (and Albert) so she takes him to a cooking thing.  He gets an allergic reaction to something in the food, she takes him to the pharmacy and he gets drunk off of the Benedryl.  He reveals where Allegra and Albert are going the next night.  She also finds out from another source that there is such thing as the date doctor and she calls him and sets up a meeting with her assistant.  Hitch arrives but smells a rat (and sees the camera) and dips out - but Sara sees him and gets upset that all the sweet things he said were lies.  She confronts him, they fight, then in the paper the next day she breaks the story that Albert got Allegra through a date doctor.  Hitch's identity is revealed and Allegra stops calling Albert and Sara and Hitch fight more and don't talk.  After a despairing time, Albert decides he doesn't care what happens, he loves Allegra.  Hitch explains to Allegra that he never really did anything, just created the opportunity.  Albert was always himself.  Hitch then goes to Sara and says he needs her, so she takes him back.  End with Allegra and Albert's wedding, with lots of dancing.

by: DJGroovySlug at February 23, 2005 15:44 | link | comments dj groovy slug recommends

Wednesday, 23 February 2005

  "Now comes the part of the show I like to call, 'And how are you doing?'" (Part II - Catching up on the Readings/Class Topics)

Essay: Why I didn't Post a Single Thing on Neuromancer

My current concentration as an English major is "The Development of Modern Literature" which focuses on 18th and 19th century British and American literature.  I swear to god, Neuromancer is my very first science fiction novel, forget cyberpunk.  I can list the number of sci-fi movies I've seen on one hand ("Matrix," "Star Wars" - I'm counting all episodes as "1" - "I, Robot," "Minority Report" and maybe "Batteries not Included" [that counts!]).  Don't get me wrong.  I read the whole book.  In a week no less.   It wasn't hard to read, well at least not at first.  But I just didn't enjoy it.  It is one of the few books I've read in my life that hasn't affected me in any way.  I read the last page and went out for Baja Fresh.  Nothing.  It's not as though I want to repress the memory of Neuromancer. But I just didn't interest me.  I was in no rush to find out what other books Wiliam Gibson has written, nor did I care much what happened to the characters - okay I was slightly disappointed that Molly and Case didn't end up together. But honestly, the book had no major effect on me.  It was as though I never even read it.

Essay: Even Though the Book had no Effect on Me, Here is What I Thought About Neuromancer

The biggest thing that stuck out for me about Neuromancer was the characterization of Molly.  Even if Molly ended up taking on "masculine" characteristics active vs. the passive Case,  violent, sexual, un-emtional, Molly is still a male's fantasy of what a post Feminist woman would be.  "Molly" has turned into such a cliche - the femme fatale - starting with those highly sexualized, strong women characters of film noir right on to Trinity in "The Matrix." What Molly really reminded me of was that cartoon "Aeon Flux" as the leggy, cold, sexualized assasin.

Why is Molly a male's fantasy even though she supposedly "kicks ass"? Because she still maintains highly feminized characteristics.  One of the biggest things for me that stuck out was her major weapon: her razor nails.  Why did Gibson choose to make her nails (normally associated with feminity and prettiness) as her weapon?  A man would never have retracting nails because of the association with obsession with one's nails as a feminine characteristic. It also deals with the assocation between women and cats, i.e. women are catty, cats have retracting nails.  Here's a better example: the character Wolverine appeared in the late 1960s.  He also has retracting razors from his hands, but they retract from the knuckles, not the nails.  Think of the associations between knuckles and men - fighiting, boxing - vs. the assocations of nails and women - prettiness, daintiness. 

xxx, Luv, DJ Groovy Slug

by: DJGroovySlug at February 23, 2005 15:27 | link | comments dj groovy slug recommends

Wednesday, 23 February 2005

Lexia to Perplexia: Umm....My Words Exactly (Part I)

okay, so I tried the lexia to perplexia thing about twenty times. I tried it on Safari (Mac's browser), I tried it on IE, I tried it on Netscape. I still don't understand it. I don't know what it's supposed to do. I click on something and then nothing happens. I don't understand what any of it means or what the purpose is. So I read the interview w/ Talan Memmott. Here is HIS explanation of Lexia to Perplexia:

"'Lexia to Perplexia' is something of an observational application, a deconstruction of Internet attachment. It operates as a narrativizing device; in that, User interaction produces the narrative and the narrative itself is that of the Users engagement with the application. As well, the work provides commentary on alterationss in ontology and the general linguistic economy that have emerged via the Internet." (sidenote - ontology: an explicit formal specification of how to represent the objects, concepts, and other entities that are assumed to exist in some area of interest and the relationships that hold among them.)

Okay so he says the narrative created is the user's interaction with the application. Here is how the narrative went with me:

Click. Pause for loading. Click Click. First button. Stare at words. "What the hell?" Click. Nothing. Click click. Nothing happens. Close out window. Back to main page. Click. Click. Pause for loading. Click on different button this time. Stare at blank screen with arrows. Random clicking as cursor moves across page. Nothing. Check volume. Silence. Check volume again. Ferocious clicking. "ERGH!" Close out application entirely. Restart browser. Back to syllabus. Click. Click. Pause for loading. Click on third button option. More words and arrows. More ferocious clicking. Nothing. Pause. Stare at screen for a while. "F** this." Close out application.

I should point out that this narrative is scaled down considerably. Multiply entire narrative times ten and that's how long I spent trying to figure this thing out. Of course, my limited technological skills probably hampered my understanding of what was going on. I will try to view the thing on a school computer and maybe my understanding will increase tenfold. (Click here for Part II)

 xxx. Luv, DJ Groovy Slug.

by: DJGroovySlug at February 23, 2005 14:41 | link | comments dj groovy slug recommends

Wednesday, 16 February 2005

Earnhardt's Playlist

I'm posting a lot today! Why you ask? Well, my Wednesday is like most college students Thursdays. I do have one class on Thursday, but it's my "thesis" class (meaning it's an entire class designed to help me write my thesis paper - forty pages of critical theory bliss). This means that I almost never have a book to read or something to comment on, I just go and listen to my teacher blab about how to search databases for sources and how to write a research proposal. Good times.

Anyway, as my profile states, I'm an iPod owner, which almost inevitably means that I'm an iTunes user, which also means, since I have a T1 connection, that I frequent the iTunes music store. Often. Right now, iTunes is like eBay was for me about five years ago, I would spend hours just searching for things to buy (a picture frame that has a digital alarm clock with date and temperature gauge! I'll take it!). Luckily eBay got irritating, so now I comb iTunes looking for the music I love or want to learn to love.

Wow, I really go on tangents. The whole point of this story is that I was looking at Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Celebrity Playlist and the second to last song is Toto's "Africa." This was on the same list as Korn and Dwight Yoakum. In fact, Jr.'s playlist is the most fascinating one I've seen on iTunes. "Who's that playing Marcy Playground, the Police AND Fleetwood Mac? That must be Dale Jr." Toto. I never would have guessed. From the same man who has taken the liberty to place himself in first position on the Nextel Cup Standings window on his website.
by: DJGroovySlug at February 16, 2005 21:55 | link | comments (3) random thoughts