Prada is Sexy.

so I did miss my connection on my flight. but luckily the airline put me up in a hotel for free. !! right? So, I ended up leaving on Wednesday afternoon and getting to my destination Thursday night. Fantastic. But since then the Midwest has welcomed me back with open arms. I promptly jumped in the car early Friday morning to drive 5.5 hours to Osh Kosh Wisconsin for the NCAA Division III Track Championships where my loveliest high school teammate was participating in my beloved steeplechase. She got fourth, booyah. Then, back in the car on Saturday for 5.5 hours before jumping in my brother's car and driving my tired caffeinated self 3.5 hours to my father's little lakeside trailer to spend Memorial Day weekend with the family. Welp, on Sunday evening an F5 Tornado hit a mile or two away from our trailer, with the cell all around us and pretty much scaring the bejeezes out of me. I've been in the state for less than 72 hours and it's already trying to kill me: the feeling's mutual. But I did not die. I lived. And here I am. Today, I woke up late, ate cake for breakfast, played Guitar Hero and got depressed and angry about my job search. I was going to rant about that here, but I accidentally let it spill on some friends and my younger brother, so it's kind of been cleared. But who knows, I'm certainly not emotionally settled about it, so we may see another outburst on here at a latter date.


But to be fair, I went for a short run today. I'm fat and out of shape. well not so fat, but feel fat when I run. and I was huffing and puffing. The lungs were not pleased. What the hell. But its ok. I still haven't hit one year yet for my year "off" so, who knows, perhaps by mid-June i"ll have somewhere to live and a schedule with a job etc. By golly, why I might even join a gym like the rest of the soul-less country. My B.


I made some summer drinks out of suggestions from a magazine. God, that sounds horrible. but let's be honest. i did. and they are delicious. My new favorite summer drink. Improvised of course, tailor made for Shan. Perhaps we'll call it the Shan, or to throw props to the original, the Shan Americano. Its two shots sweet vermouth one shot Campari. And, if you're looking for a less bitter drink, splash some Sprite or soda in there. So good. I like Campari, and not just because of Steve Zissou...



but other than that. The midwest is quiet...a little too quiet. But i did mention that I dug through my old library? Yes. Fantastic. I put up the new reading list with all the stuff I want to read/reread so yippee. That is if I can tear myself away from Guitar Hero (wtf?)



For Old Times' Sake:






Dearest Matchmaker.

How grateful I am for your comment! I received your comment around the same time i was doing some digging through my library in the basement and I had come upon two books that I thought I had lent to a friend and never got back. But what now, I find them amongst my boxes and physically jumped, sharp intake of air and clutched the books to my chest. And then, your comment sent me to cloud nine and right then and there it became quite clear to me that grad school here I come. It only makes sense.

SO YES. Many many good things.

First (not that this should belie any sort of structure to my response):

Dualities, hierarchies and other naughty folk. I felt that toward the end of my four years of education (which you are QUITE right, was aimed at moving beyond dualities) that I came more and more into my own as opposed to defaulting to professor opinion. I had the beginnings of discussion about these nasty beasts with Zayn, perhaps the most explicit advocate of plurality and moving beyond dualism in the department. However, we never got too far. Matchmaker, I'm just not convinced by the move. In fact, I think either a) it's impossible or b) impractical. I know whence this opinion stems. It would be the work of Catherine Bell specifically in her book Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. In summary, she describes the phenomenon/social practice of ritualization as a universal practice at least to some extent. Yes yes, anthropologists and sociologists watch thy tongues, but she does a damn good job of it. And really, the way she presents it the ritualization orders, structures, reinforces and embodies those dualities, hierarchies and other nasty bits that we have create, discover (pick one, haha ( or two or all). So yes. that's the first bit. (i would like to explore what a ritual would look like, or ritualization, or our structure system of "pluralities" if they are to come replace our dualities). So the first bit, I'll concede there may be room for Catherine Bell's work with stickier situations like pluralities. She acknowledges that things are dynamic, fluid, structured and structuring (one of Zayn's favorite isms). Which. I think, the fluidity of hierarchies, power dynamics, and "the rules of the game" i.e. phenomena such as ritualization being essentially open to all parties is enough to safeguard having those nasty bits around. Now, I realize that's a big hope. We'd have to take on the whole concept of the ritual expert Bell speaks about, which is like the scholar, the priest, the brahmin, etc etc etc.

However, the second bit with which I take issue is the plurality concept itself. Yes, its amorphous and sticky messy ewwww where are my categories?! But still, I'd like to believe I dislike the concept for more than the reactionary squirmishness. First of all, we should perhaps get our ideas of plurality straight. How I see the plurality is the attempt to take the fluidity of duality and categorize it into a unified one, or single graspable concept. Similar to what you were discussing with two becoming the new one. this is how i've reacted to plurality. Especially with the stereotypical slippery slope of some of the post-modern or post-post modern thinking. I ran into this problem senior year when I read the article "On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme" by Dave Davidson. And while I like Darryl's explanation (and visual representations) of conceptual schemes in motion, I think you can't escape the totalization, or systematization of any sort of plurality. because any way we try to discuss the practicality of it, aspects of a plurality interact in certain ways etc etc. I agree with the danger of the popular but incorrect "scientific" perspective. We should always keep in mind that our "truths" "axioms" et al. are observationally and empirically based. (or so would be my theoretical framework). So, while we may agree that the way particular aspects within a plurality interact in certain ways by no means does this provide us with any sort of statistical information on how any other aspect could relate (as if it could be so quantified). So right, we're either stuck with the plurality that's a case by case deal (from which we then approximate i.e. categorize in order to DO something with it, i.e. exert power, i.e. influence, i.e. our existence) I know this is a tricky train and could be subverted, but, not without great effort i think. because if you take on board the plurality idea, it's not alone. It comes with the foundational shift that one implicitly makes with it. So yes, we can agree that much ickiness has resulted from categorization, polarization, and duality enforcement, but an infinite amount seems right out.

Uprooting the duality structure uproots along with it our notions of power and in my opinion empirical or existential or what have you, on how we find ourselves to be "here" exactly, wherever that may be. Do you think it trickles this far? Or am I bonkers?

The binary nature of nature. Hmm yeah. I guess I wouldn't want to jump in that camp either too eagerly, but it's where Bell digs at my scientific heart. The basis for much of theory of ritualization requires the ritualization of the body. And since the dynamic/phenomenon is structured and structuring, we find that our bodies are not only structured to a certain extent WITHOUT our abstract ideas thoughts systems, person-person interactions etc, but then also in turn STRUCTURES all those ideas, thoughts, concepts, social systems, etc. So yeah, its a rough argument to break with the commonsensical notion of right hand left hand. and basic orientation opposites in how we seem to "naturally" orient ourselves within our environment. We find numerous subversive natural inclinations as well though. So it would seem to me that it's the fluidity not the structure that's important. but perhaps we're saying the same thing.

yes, interesting about the androgyny. I haven't been privy to much scholarship on alternative identities and theory etc. which, too bad. I did want to try to minor in something like that stuff. but from a "lay" persons perspective, i would say that androgyny (despite the etymology) comes off (in the observed phenomenon, not the concept) as being much more obviously C as opposed to hermaphroditism which seems to me plainly mix equal parts A and B to get AB. Androgyny I think displays more of the signification that Darryl speaks about, the repetition with a difference that is a new thought in dialogue. Whereas hermaphroditism seems more like summary. Perhaps that's so off base.

Anyway, to wrap this up. I looked a while for a good photo but alas, I'll post yet another video. Which I know I've posted David Bowie before, so it's a bit out of control now and it'll have to be the last time. But, its a bit fuller than a photo in that respect because Bowie moves, and sings and etc and it ALL feeds into this androgynous image or C. Something new is being created, not blended. Interesting.