Pavement and a proposal

I will agree there is absolutely nothing, nothing more than me

-Pavement, Range Life

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Well, if talking and all those calls for radicalism won’t resolve anything, then I guess complete silence and evasion is the way to go. So, no contact = no fuel for crazy thoughts = no problem = no whining = everybody happy! To use conservation science speak, a “win-win” solution for everyone, or a “small loss-big gain” at least. I guess a year or two would do, and I’m sure it’s enough to make things turn out better later. It worked before in other contexts and I don’t see why it won’t this time. It’s liberating because I don’t actually have to do anything. So yeah, let’s do it!

In other news, I have a new love affair. This time with Pavement, a 90s lo-fi band that influenced perhaps most of today’s indie bands. Awesomeness.

Cut Your Hair

…And Carrot Rope

Shady Lane

Critique of reductionist and risk-averse prudence, or a radical call to action!

Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age.

-James Joyce, The Dead

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And with the profound wisdom coming out of 11 months worth of emo introspection/rationalization/de-rationalization combined with radical thought from critical geographies, I was able to send out this advice to a friend.

And while it is true that we should live by the consequences of our choices, it does not mean that we cannot do anything about things, and that we just passively accept and live out the repercussions of our decisions. No!

Now, if only I could embody this advice and do it myself. But I am getting there! Just a few more inspirations from radical social theory and I will actually do something active. And I won’t be apologizing for it!

And yesterday was salsa night (where I actually salsa-ed horribly with much taller partners) in one of the few cool places here.

And a week ago was a trip to relaxing San Antonio.

Loser

So while everyone else is going about their interesting lives (and lovelife), I am stuck here in semi-rural Texas reading and writing about tropical forests, with the heavy mass of an unidentified emoness weighing me  down. My goodness, why is it so impossible to move on?

Caring is creepy

Thank goodness to The Shins (more below) and a wonderful response to a 2-page review that took me six hours to write for lifting my spirits up on a day of November rain (the nth time we hear about this cliched Guns N’ Roses reference, sorry!).

And yes, The Shins is the shit.

But you’ve got too much to wear on your sleeves
It has too much to do with me
But secretly I want to bury in the yard
The gray remains of a friendship scarred

-Kissing the Lipless

This is way beyond my remote concern
Of being condescending
All these squawking birds won’t quit
Building nothing, laying bricks

-Caring is Creepy

Leopold Lesson #1: Ignoring it won’t make it go away. Sorry.

Leopold Lesson #2: Beautiful distractions are temporary. Ugly inflictions are chronic.

Roasted turkey in pumpkin sauce

Well, things are not really as dramatic as the previous post may imply. But its essential message is still valid and accurate. I just wish I had “balls” and was “man” enough to do something active about it (Apologies for using those deplorably masculinist cliches).

In other news, thank goodness for Daylight Savings Time! I don’t have to regularly wake up before the sun rises again (hopefully). Also, all this academic writing is making my literary well run dry. I need to recharge!

And Halloween was fun! Food!

47F

I understand what I am still too proud to mention
To you

-Fiona Apple, Never is a Promise

On one hand, it is your fault, so you should do something about this. On the other hand, it is also my fault so I should also do something about it. Either way, it should be done soon, preferably before the arrival of finals week (because I do not want to pause long and collapse my shoulders often between academic tasks).

Cold weather is screwing me up. This will go on and on and on but it shouldn’t. Something radical has to happen! Like, actually talking.

Para usted*

Let’s try this.

To address this heavily asymmetrical set-up of you knowing most of what I’m thinking (which is my fault, but still…), I pose the suggestion: Why don’t you tell me what you think. Drop a hint, send a clue, whatever. Let me know and I’d appreciate it.

 

*courtesy of Google Translate

Critique of common sense, or screw the Summers of the world!

The best way to get over a woman is to turn her into literature

-a character quoting Henry Miller in (500) Days of Summer

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(500) Days of Summer, despite its sometimes annoying preciousness, is actually a good film. Until that fucked-up, cop-out ending. (SPOILERS!) Why should he get over Summer? Why couldn’t he be miserable all his life and be angry at her forever? Why should he move on?

Common sense is not only uncommon, non-universal and context-specific, it is also a product of a dominant rhetoric that remains unchallenged and that gets reproduced by our uncritical acceptance of it. Subversion #7: Resist!

Subversion #6

Make it easy
Make this easy
It’s not as heavy as it seems

-Tori Amos, Bouncing Off Clouds

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Everything is so blurry now for the first time in more than two months! I feel good!

And yeah, it shouldn’t be too difficult. Everything is easy. So easy! You know what I mean.

Post-kebsism

Subversion #4: I am just not ready yet to completely abandon the theory of kebsism. With deeper introspection, I realized that kebsism can be an effective tool of passive resistance (modified from Gandhi). However, we must remember that kebsism is good only for certain situations (such as resisting neocolonial relations in the production of knowledge by ignoring their rules and silently rejecting the ideals they work for so dearly) and should not supplant active forms of struggle against oppressive, unjust and uncaring structures.

Now back to studying (or subverting?) a ’science’ that hides behind a curtain of supposed objectivity (remote sensing).

Subversion #5: Resist the de-humorification of leopoldbloom.wordpress.com! I should put in a video of Chen lip-synching or something.