In Praise of Freaks

"The Michael Jackson cacophony is fascinating in that it is not about Jackson at all.”

"All that noise is about America, as the dishonest custodian of black life and wealth; the blacks, especially males, in America; and the burning, buried American guilt; and sex and sexual roles and sexual panic; money, success and despair…”

“Freaks are called freaks and are treated as they are treated–in the main, abominably–because they are human beings who cause to echo, deep within us, our most profound terrors and desires.”

James Baldwin wrote this in an essay on Jackson, originally titled Freaks and the American Ideal of Manhood, originally published in Playboy in 1965 and later retitled Here Be Dragons, and I think it is one of the truest things that has been said on the subject.
(Via. Laura Flanders)

Still...

Why I use "queer"

"Why then is it in the interests of our bosses and the state to enforce gender roles when they are so evidently not applicable to all, are incorrect in their generalisations, and cause division? To ask that question is to answer it... Imagine the political potential of a unified working class; united in their exploitation and desire to end the monotony of work and life under capitalism, this is not an easy task in a society fragmented along so many different lines. (In) our division, lies our weakness and it is no accident! A united working class consisting of workers united in pursuit of freedom from the confines of a homophobic, violent and exploitative society is of course capitalism's greatest threat. The response of the capitalist class then, is to divide and rule; setting male against female, heterosexual against homosexual etc..."

"Whatever your self-defined gender identity, we all seek a world where how you dress, the people you sleep with and genitalia you possess do not embody who you are, we feel that the fight for a better world necessitates the overthrow of the very system that perpetuates gender myths and heterosexual supremacy. Sexual freedom will only be achieved in the pursuit of freedom for all, and not just freedom for our rulers and our bosses!"

link: Queer - An Anarchist Deconstruction

Thought for the Day

"We can do anything!" is a phrase usually uttered by someone who won't be around when it's time to clean up.

Just as I always suspected!

Eating Meat Is Not Natural
(Via. Alternet)

R.I.P.

The only mention of it I've been able to find is at Ron Silliman's blog, but the not unexpected death of poet Harold Norse seems to have occurred sometime in the last few days. In 1996 he had a heart attack and underwent quadruple bypass surgery, but continued to work on a history of homophobia: Homo.

His writing had a profound influence on me and my self-esteem at a time when it was sorely needed, especially Memoirs of a Bastard Angel and Love Poems. He taught me defiance. There is an excellent bio piece by Jim Nawrocki from the Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, and another with a bibliography at the Beat Museum.

Simple-minded

One party created the current disaster. The other has embraced the broadest parameters of the policies that (enabled) the disasters that voters want fixed — wealth transfers to the ultra rich while the vast majority gets just about nothing plus mindless, counter productive fantasies of empire through war.

link: Dissident Voice : The Binary Fallacy and the End of Two Parties

Artist's Eye

If you're interested in how an artist works and aren't offended by mildly homoerotic art, I suggest you check out DickiesDrawings. He posts concept sketches, journal pages, animation roughs, etc. which I find fascinating. And he's very talented.

The Metamorphoses of Don José

An intriguing discussion of a reiterated gentleman. Click pic
Thanks to John Coulthart at { feuilleton }

Sonic ecstasy

Click to see/hear Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Sena Jurinac and Anneliese Rothenberger, from the wonderful film by P. Czinner (1960), Karajan conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Thanks also to Alidoro, and Gottfried Helnwein

In Progress

138 x 180 mm. on w/c paper
Panel 1 of 6 panorama

Lyonel Feininger