Music as the Other of Philosophy and Proxy for Philosophy’s Others: Some Initial Thoughts On Grosz
I’m fairly new to Elizabeth Grosz’s work, and these are just some initial thoughts as I prepare for Monday’s grad class. Feedback is, as always, welcome. All references are to Chaos, Territory, Art. While Grosz claims she is not orientalizingly…
The Pleasure Principle Meets the Performance Principle: Gary Numan, Marcuse, and Neoliberalism
So I think Gary Numan’s work—I’m thinking Tubeway Army & Pleasure Principle stuff—is a really helpful example of the ways neoliberalism and “global/info” capital reworks the structuring binaries of classical liberalism and commodity capitalism. Binaries like public/private, authentic/alienated, use/exchange—these all…
Falling Skies, The Skitter Rebellion, and White Feminism
Because I limit my TV more or less to science fiction, Shameless, and anything with Lance Reddick in it, I’ve been following Falling Skies. Basically, it’s a post-apocalyptic alien-invasion/human genocide series. It can be overly maudlin at times, with its…
From New Wave to No Wave #2: New Wave, Same Old Whiteness
This is a continuation from an earlier post. There I discuss Sara Ahmed’s work on the politics of disorientation. In this post, I look at the ways that New Wave’s musical disorientation re-centers conventional accounts of whiteness, specifically, white (men’s)…
Roman and Raymond: Or, Nicki, Usher, and the Gendering of (Black) Genius
Because I intend, eventually, to weigh in with my own take on Roman Reloaded, I’ve been reading up on all the excellent feminist writing on Nicki Minaj. As I was making my way through the articles/blog posts/etc., the fabulous Ann…
Johnny B. Goode, Back to the Future, and the Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle
Today I was in the gym, where have all my best ideas (I blame it on the increased oxygen to the brain). What I talk about in this post is definitely not on the list of Robin’s best ideas, but…
Intensification vs Intersection: “Metrosexual Black Abe Lincoln”
Intensification vs Intersection: “Metrosexual Black Abe Lincoln” In this post I both unpack the slur in the title, and use it to explain how discourses of “difference” (race, sexuality) function in neoliberal Western democracies. So some on the American…
Record Store Day: Myth & Enlightenment
Today is “Record Store Day,” a day dedicated to the celebration of authenticity: the “realness” and warmness of vinyl records (which were often recorded w/digital equipment–remember DAT?), the “authentic” face-to-face sociality of the record store itself (somehow the IRL experience…
Not A Piece of Cake: Ethics, Aesthetics, & “Chris Brown & Rihanna” Problem
“It’s too close for comfort…So If you must falter be wise” (Disturbia; written by Brown, performed by Rihanna) The recent ink (or, more often, binary code) spilled over Chris Brown (sometimes in relation to Rihanna) raises a lot of interesting…
Madonna, “Give Me All Your Luvin,” and Postmillennial Hipness: Or, 18 years later and bell hooks is still right
You’ve gotta give Madonna credit: she always keeps up with the trends, and has her finger on the hot new thing. As her new song and video, “Give Me All Your Luvin,” shows, Madge knows the new, postmillennial language of…
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