Baseball Playoffs

Welcome to this baseball playoff preview of the Lounge.  I realize that three games have already been played, and I watched them all, but I didn’t get a chance to do this yesterday, so I’m doing it now.  I don’t usually like to make MLB playoff predictions because I’m biased toward the Yankees and no one ever believes that I do it without bias, which is good cause I’m a huge liar when I say that.  Luckily I was listening to the Mike and Mike Show on ESPN Radio Monday morning, great show btw, and they had Steve Phillips on to make baseball confidence picks.  It’s basically ranking each playoff teams Offense, Starting Rotation, Bullpen, and Manager and whoever comes out with the lowest score is the confidence pick.  It’s truely possible to go against confidence picks, but for the sake of non-biased results and experimentation I’m going to now give you my confidence picks for the American League, National League, and then World Series based off those predictions.  The games from yesterday have no effect since I actually wrote this out on paper on Tuesday afternoon.  (anyone looking for proof of lack of life, there’s a gem for you.)

American League Playoffs:

Offense:

1. New York Yankees

2. Boston Red Sox

3. Cleveland Indians

4. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Starting Rotation:

1. Cleveland Indians

2. Boston Red Sox

3. New York Yankees

4. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Bullpen:

1. Boston Red Sox (I know they’ve been having trouble down the stretch, but they’re still the best in the AL is not the major leagues.  God it hurts to say that)

2. New York Yankees (Mariano and Joba are to good to knock down to number 3, send your complatins to the complaint department.)

3. Cleveland Indians

4. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Manager:

1. New York Yankees  There’s just no argument.  I like all four managers in the AL and think they’re all good, but Mr. Torre is number 1.

2. Boston Red Sox

3. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

4. Cleveland Indians

 Now that hard part…math.  Let’s break out those calculators and see what we have.

Angels: 15

Red Sox: 7

Yankees: 7

Indians: 11

So according to this, it’ll be Yankees and Red Sox in the ALCS.  Becuse this ended in a tie, god damnit nothing is ever fool-proof, I went with who won the season series and that puts the Yankees in the World Series.  I know I know big suprise.  I’m just going by the numbers anything can happen, though I’m not complaining about that result. 

National League Playoffs:

Offense:

1. Philadelphia Philles

2. Colorado Rockies

3. Chicago Cubs

4. Arizona Diamondbacks

Sarting Rotation:

1. Chicago Cubs

2. Arizona Diamondbacks

3. Colorado Rockies

4. Philadelphia Philles

Bullpen

1. Chicago Cubs

2. Colorado Rockies

3. Arizona Diamondbacks

4. Philadelphia Philles (they were all close, so it’s not a whopping 4th…but 4th none the less.)

Manager:

1. Chicago Cubs (sensing a pattern?)

2. Philadelphia Phillies

3. Arizona Diamondbacks

4. Colorado Rockies

So once again the totals:

Rockies: 11

Phillies: 11

Cubs: 6

D-Backs: 12

The Phillies and Rockies end in a tie, of course, so using the season series it is the Rockies who move on (4-3) to face the Cubs in the NLCS.  There is no need for a tiebreaker there as the Cubs advance to the World Series for the first time since 1945.

World Series:

 vs.

The moment you’ve all been sitting on the edge of your seats for.  Personally, I think this would be a great matchup, so let’s see how it would work out with this confidence system. (Go Yanks!  Who said that?)

Offense: Yankees- It has to be New York’s offensive explosion.  Yeah teh Cubs have Soriano, but he strikes out a lot especially in the playoffs, Derek Lee, and Aramis Ramirez, but the Yanks have A-Rod, Jeter, Matusi, Cano, Abreu, Posada, and there’s no argument who is the superior for there.  So far 2-1 Bombers.

Starting Rotation: Wang, Pettite, Clemens, Mussina or Hughes vs. Zambrano, Lilly, Hill, Marquis.  This is a toss up.  I give a slight edge to the Cubs because Clemens has been hurt, and Mussina isn’t the sure thing he used to be.  That ties up the Fall Classic at 3-3.

Bullpen: Yankees  I know it’s close, but with Mariano and Joba and an effective Vizcaino and maybe even Kyle Farnsworth (okay now I’m just joking around) I have to give the edge to the Yanks.  (that biased son of a bitch) 5-4 Yankees.

Manager: Yankees  Both Torre and Piniella are great, but Torre has the rings and lack of curse.  Plus I’m a biased son of a bitch.  Yankees win 7-5.

Well, that didn’t change much, but at least I have numbers now to back up my talk.  Maybe next year I’ll have a more interesting result….I hope not.  Go Yanks!

Next Time: I weigh in on Instant Replay in baseball, discuss why TBS should stick to sitcoms, and much much more…unless I get lazy and only write about the first stuff

The John Urbanski Lounge: Season 2

Just in time for the fall lineup to premiere, the John Urbanski Lounge makes its return.  I said I might write over the summer and that’s not a lie because I only said might.  Boo yah.  To more important things, Season 2 will be jammed packed with new stuff not involving theory.  As much as I will miss criticizing and being frusterated by theorists on a daily basis, I think I will survive discussing and complaning about every day things.  Like baseball for example.

Yesterday the Philadelphia Phillies finished off one of the biggest September comebacks in baseball history.  The New York Mets had a 7 game lead in the NL East division with 17 games to go and blew it.  I was thrilled to see the collapse and see two of my favorite non-Yankee players in Major League Baseball, Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley, help the Phillies to their first Nationl League East Division title since 1993.  Congratulations to the Phillies fans.  As for the Mets, they have no one to blame but themselves.  They played absolutely terrible baseball since Labor Day, and then had the nerve to showboat as they were up big on the Marlins the night after blowing the NL East lead in a loss to the Marlins.  The next day the Marlins handed the Mets their own asses as they throttled them and gave the Phillies a leg up over their rival. 

Facing the Phillies in the first round will be either the Padres or Rockies.  They’re playing tonight in a game that is sure to be exciting and is a very rare thing in baseball.  One game to decide a playoff spot.  Rockie and Padres is a great matchup tonight as Jake Peavy, the probable Cy Young winner for the NL, will get to face Matt Holliday, a possible canidate for NL MVP (though my non-imporant vote goes to Jimmy Rollins)  With the Rockies at home and with the momentum really pushing them right now, I think the Rockies will pull it off and a little part of me is pulling for them. 

It is October my friends.  Delicious apple cider and cider donughts, MLB Baseball Playoffs and World Series, NFL Football, Halloween, and plenty of good times.  With the return of the Lounge I’m looking forward to talk about plenty of sports and other stuff, including news, entertainment and books, thats either exciting, interesting, or just pisses me off.  I figured this was a good idea since the world really needs another person blogging and throwing his or her own opinion on the internet for no reason.  There’s not enough of that now a days.  I also plan on updating on news about the Dark Knight, cause I’m even more excitied for that then I was for Spiderman 3.  (if that’s possible.)  So sit back, relax, and I hope you enjoy Season 2 of the John Urbanski Lounge.  (Season 1 of the Lounge will be on DVD starting Novemeber 10th, but until then it’s in the category called “ENG 330)

Web Slinging Fun in the Lounge

The John Urbanski Lounge is proud to present a special finals week/Spiderman 3 edition of the Lounge.  Peter Parker would be proud.  But really, what does the Spiderman 3 trailer and Jameson’s parody vs. pastiche and the idea of nostalgia have in common?  Well my friends, we’re about to find out.

    

The Spiderman 3 trailer contains some examples of Jameson’s ideas of pastiche and nostalgia.  Before I dive into what these are, I think it’d be helpful for understanding (for you and for me) how Jameson discusses these things:

“Pastiche is, like a parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique style, the wearing of a stylistic mask, speech in a dead language: but it is a neutral practice of such mimicry, without paroy’s ulterior motive, without the satirical impulse, without laughter, without that still latent feeling that there exists something normal compared to which is being imitated is rather comic.  Pastiche is blank parody, parody that has lost it’s sense of humor…” (Jameson 1963)

To Jameson, the whole idea of Spiderman is a pastiche.  Spiderman himself is an imitation of a hero character that many people want to be like.  The character in Peter Parker is really a small guy whose nerdy and loves science, but when he is Spiderman he drops his everyday personality and becomes a superhero.  Isn’t there a time where we all wish we could stop being ourselves and become something we’d conisder to be better?  Spiderman is that ultimate good guy that becomes an escape, especially to those who feel powerless and need a hero. 

Even with that said it’s when Spiderman becomes a part of our reality that the pastiche really sets in.  This week, April 30-May 6, in New York City (home to Spiderman) there is an event called “Spiderman Week” taking place.  Through out the week there will be Spiderman themed events taking place all around the city.  The best part?  The catch phrase is “A Hero Comes Home.”  How’s that for a pastiche?  On top of this real extravaganza that is taking place in the Big Apple, there is a shot in the trailer with young kids dressed in Spiderman outfits cheering.  The movie isn’t ment to be funny, but it is at least amusing that what NYC is holding this week is similar to a scene in the upcoming movie of a Spiderman Celebration where regular people just come out to see Spiderman.  Isn’t that what we’re doing when we see the movie anyways?

Along the same lines is the story line that is presented to us in the trailer.  Peter Parker battles his evil side, thanks to a new black suit, and sturggles to hold on to his good side.  I know, our favorite outfit doesn’t turn black thanks to an alien and we don’t decide to change out hairstyle when we feel a less then flattering quality of ours coming on, but this ends up being a monster pastiche.  Think about it for a second.  We all have a tendency to do something we know is wrong (or at least think about that option) if we think it will benefit us and many times most people will act on that.  In the Spiderman 3 trailer, we see Peter Parker gain a new suit that enhances his already super human ability and makes him even more powerful.  The catch is he becomes drunk off his new found power and his enitre personality changes.  After realizing this he tries to find himself in the darkness that he has slipped into. 

  Don’t we all struggle with this when we try to decide what is right from what is wrong?  Every time we decide to do something right because we know it’s the right thing to do, even if we’re giving up an easier path, we do what Peter Parker does in the movie in a much less glorified way.  Everyone looks in the mirror and asks a questions along the lines of “What do I want to be?, Who am I?, Is this really me?, etc.”  It is because we all experience this in one way or another that it becomes a pastiche as the movie brings out inner battle with ourselves to life using visuals. 

This same example actually fits in pretty nicely with Jameson’s thoughts on nostalgia as well.  Once again I want to quote some of what Jameson says for explanation because what’s better then getting it from the scource?  (certainly not getting it from me)

“…supposing I suggested that Star Wars is also a nostalgia film.  What could that mean?  I presume we can agree that this is not a historical film about our own intergalactic past….one of the most important cultural experiences of the generations that grew up from the 1930s to 1950s was the Saturday afternoon serial of the Buck Rogers type-alien villains, true American heroes, heroines in distress…”  (Sound familiar?  Sorry Jameson, please continue) “…Star Wars reinvents this experience in the form of a  pastiche: that is, there is no longer any point to a parody of such serials since they are long extinct……it is a complex object in which on some first level children and adolescents can take the adventures straight, while the adult public is able to gratify a deeper and more properly nostalgic desire to return to the older period and to live its strange old aesthetic artifcats through once again.” 

Now replace everything that says “Star Wars” with “Spiderman movies.”  It is the exact same concept.  Adults who are familiar to the actual Spiderman comics and the original stories can think back to the first time they read the stories and how they’ve been molded to fit the silver screen.     

Even if you’re still not sure about the exact story that’s being teased in the Spiderman 3 trailer, just look at either of the first two movies and you’ll see a story from the comic book molded to fit into the Peter Parker that exists in Hollywood.  The stories are not completely the same and there are some glaring difference to those who experience the nostalgia effect, but the basic idea is the same.  New generations and new people can be introduced to Spiderman’s story, while others can look back on the Spiderman they know and how he has been adapted to become a modern blockbuster soon to be three times over.

 

 

I’m not going to let myself do it…

I really was going to make my title “Aint no party like a Cyborg Party” but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.  I think i saw someone else do something like it on a blog earlier in the semester but still I couldn’t get it out of my head so I just had to say it…just not as a title…because title’s are bold and grab your attention and I don’t want people thinking John wants to party with cybords….whoo!

Okay on that note time to talk Donna Haraway.  To begin I just want to say I hope Haraway goes far-a-way.  Yes, I just typed that.  Must be the weather because all the bad jokes and corny phrases are just falling out in a big mess today.  Maybe Haraway will go faraway to that Cyborg Party.  Sorry, it’s out of my system. (maybe)  But anyways, Haraway is nothing short of out there.  While reading this essay I found myself checking for any metal that might be part of me and came up with nothing.  After the class discussion today I guess I get where she’s coming from….but still…..not agreeing with her.

Yes, we’re all dependent on technology.  How am I writing this now?  Computer.  Computer=Technology.  Do I have my cell phone everywhere all the time.  Yes.  “So John you just proved her point.”  Wrong!  Every person has some sort of survival gene somewhere inside of them.  If someone took away all my technology  and threw me out in the middle of the woods, could I figure out a way to survive?  Simply, Yes.  Would it suck? Yes.  Would I be grumpy all the time?  Yes.  Would I grow a wilderness man beard so when I came back I would look extra rugged?  Heck Yes!  But there is a way for human’s to survive.  It wouldn’t be easy, but people can figure it out. 

We use technology a lot to make our lives easier.  Do we flip out when we don’t have it?  Yes.  Why?  Because we like to whine and complain.  Why else would I be writing this?  However, there are still jobs people have to do by hand, I’ve spent summers doing them.  At the cement plant if a dust collector ( a large machine that really should be fired asap)  messes up, guess whose called in to clean it up?  It’s shoveling, it’s lifting, wheelbarrowing etc.  I’m not relying on any heavy euqitment to get the job done.  It’s my shoulders, my back, my legs, my arms.  Those jobs are still out there.  Plumber, electrician, firefighter, etc.  can’t be replaced by machines and if we start doing that then yes, we are cyborgs and we’re screwed so it might be better to be cyborgs so we can fire lasers out of our metal hands. 

So gender is a technology to.  Okay, I get that.  We define what gender is, what a homosexual is, what religion is which, which ethnicity is which.  It makes sense I get it.  But we’ve been down this road about 2,096 times this semester.  I know gender is complicated, and I know a lot of it is forced on us but it is what it is.  Many of the things I do is instinct.  “But John, you learned those instincs from someone else.”  Yes, I know and I accept that and now I move on with my life instead of writing a 30 page essay about how we’re all going to be the Terminator.  I get what she’s saying and I kind of agree with it, but then again I kind of don’t.  There are people out there who don’t just go by the basic standards.  For example, guys are supposed to be the ones big on sports.  Watch ESPN, most of the anchors, analysts, reporters, etc.  are men with a few women thrown in.  More then not, you hear women complaining that their husband/boy friend stay on the couch to long to watch football or baseball or something.  However, there are guys who wouldn’t be able to tell a football from a tennis racket and girls that know everything there is to know about sports.  There’s nothing more appealing then a girl who walks in, not only with a Yankee shirt on, but then also knows what she’s talking about.  (aka more then Derek Jeter is a good looking guy.)  Doesn’t that go against the grain?  A male secretary?  A female construction worker?  “But John,” (for the record I have no idea whose actually doing the “But, John’s”) “that’s what Haraway is saying, even those who don’t fit into a group end up forming a group because they have something in common.”  So therefore you get feminists and any other group who felt they were and/or have been opressed.  The best example was the one Prof. Middleton used in class today with the Japanese and the Muslims.  They didn’t have anything in common until after 9/11 and there you go, Japanese reaching out in support of Muslims who live in America so they wouldn’t be opressed like the Japanese Americans were during WWII. 

It’s interesting, but no one’s ever going to win that battle about what gender is and what defines gender or any other group because it is so complex.  I personally don’t think it’s because we’re cyborgs.  Welcome to human nature folks, we all want to belong somewhere and and if we don’t we either try to fit in or make up our own place to fit in.  Most of the time we don’t even know we’re doing it.  Why?  Because it’s become our natural instincs.  There are exceptions to the rule and always will be, but personally I like to take a more postive look at the world.  I’m happy with who and what I am.  Am I perfect?  Absolutely not I’m always making mistakes, but I’m happy being a white male who loves the Yankees (and is pissed they were swept), loves the summer time, likes to swim, coach, and whatever else that makes me John Urbanski with room for improvement.  If I was a cyborg each year Bill Gates would just hand me an upgrade and I’d be John Urbanski XP by now, but that hasn’t happened yet.

Because I Can:  There it is, my last rant of the semester.  It’s been a fun ride here at the JU Lounge trying to figure out these crazy people that we know as theorists.  Maybe I’ll stop in during the summer and write about whatevers going on occasionally.  Now that the weather’s getting nicer, it’s tougher and tougher to stay inside and do these last assignments and finals, but we’ll get there.  Have a good summer ladies and gentleman, go enjoy a ice cream cone to celebrate. 

I’m still drying off from New Rochelle’s flood…

Welcome to the Lounge and boy does it feel good to be dry.  I write a little behind due to some unforseeable circumstances at the end of my weekend trip to NYC/New Rochelle.  “Knowing” that I’d have time to read and post when I returned home Sunday night so my thoughts would be fresh for Monday I have realized I am wrong 97% of the time.  So thanks to ridiculous amounts of rain and flooding in the streets (not to mention 4 guys paddling down North Ave. on an airmatress) it is now time to dry off and write my blog.

Where to start with Baudrillard?  Well, obviously he doesn’t enjoy Disney Land or anything else that is ment to be fun.  In my senior year of high school my English teacher had us write about what our own hell would be like after reading Dante’s Inferno, it is my theory that Baudrillard would have described Disney Land.  Okay, so that might be an exaggeration but come on, who rips Disney Land?  I understand where he’s going with this in his idea of “simulacra” but there’s a hole when it comes to Disney Land.  Yes, it’s not reality, and any adult who goes there knows that and doesn’t walk in excpecting the rest of their lives to be like Disney Land.  But any feelings of hapiness that are experienced in Disney Land are not simulated.

“But John, is Disney Land is one big simulation how come the feelings of hapiness aren’t just simulations too?”  Well if when you look back on that experience and still can feel and/or remember those happy feelings, then aren’t those feelings real?  As I looked over pictures to scan onto my computer to use in this blog (unfortuetly my scanner isn’t working so we’re not going to get to see 8-year old John)  I still remembered the fun times I had with my mom, dad, and sister when we went to Dinsey World.  Sometimes I’m just a big kid and memories like these are what make life worth living, so why ruin them by saying how fake they are?  I don’t agree with that at all.  Sure, the Disney World/Land experience isn’t the same for everyone, some haven’t gone, some havent had great experiences.  But it’s the general idea of a vacation.  Is a vacation simulated?  Is everything we’re doing fake?  If you had a great time was it not real or did it just seem real?  I’m going with my theory that if the feelings are real then it’s real. 

Moving past my taking personal offense to a Disney Land reference, Baudrillard’s ideas are interesting despite the fact that he needs to figure out how to have some fun, unless his fun is writing stuff like this, then to each his own.  I thought he explained his idea between simulation, dissimulating, and reality very clearly with the example of a sickness.  It allowed me to get by any language I needed to get through and get to the point of this essay.  There are interesting points he brings up with the military and God and I think I somewhat understood where he was going with this stuff, but it’s still a little bit of a gray area for me, especially with the part about religion.  All in all, he makes some interesting points even when he discusses his points about Disney Land and the surrounding Los Angeles area.  Not a big fan of what he says, but I’ll give him the fact that it’s interesting stuff to think about.

Because I Can:  It’s always interesting what snaps our attention back to what really matters.  Unfortunetly, many times it is a sad incident that does this, and on Monday Virginia Tech experienced one first hand.  I didn’t really know what to think about it.  It’s terrible, but I didn’t know exactly how to react, I never do when it comes to senseless acts of violence.  It’s sad that anyone would fall that low where they felt that was their only way out, and it’s even sadder that innocent victims and heroes had to pay the price.  How about the professor that sacrafices himself for his students?  I wonder what ran through his head, is anything did at all.  That’s an amazing example of heroisim.  I think back to Watchmen when we thought about what a hero was.  Since then, I’ve come up with a few answers.

Welcoming Horkeimer and Adorno to America

Modern day America that is, and also welcome  to the Lounge.  To begin, let’s take a look at the titles of the most anticiapted movies this summer:

Spiderman 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Shrek 3, The Simpson’s Movie, Ocean’s Thirteen, maybe the Fantastic Four 2. 

See anything in common?Except for the Simpson’s Movie, they’re all sequels (or triqules maybe?) and the Simpson’s isn’t exaclty a new idea.  I’m not complaining because I will probably see most of these movies but it’s interesting.  Isn’t it Horkeimer and Adorno that were making a point that nothing is really original anymore in the media?  Sure, they might be cranky German’s but if you take that list of movies they’re right.  The reality show idea?  That’s been old for a long long time and all the “fresh” shows that are coming out in the reality genre are the same old idea over and over. 

I’m kind of okay with this though.  Not necessarily with the reality shows but with an idea of creativity in unoriginality.  I personally like sequels to movies that are ment to have sequels, like Spiderman.  (I’m about to make myself sound like a huge nerd but it’s okay we’ll move on).  I’ve been counting the days to Spiderman 3.  It’s the story that attracts me to the movie, I want more.  One Spiderman wouldn’t have cut it for me.  Hell, three Spidermans probably won’t cut it for me.  Horkeimer and Adorno may have pointed out this lack of creativity to me, but now I’m going to point something out to them.

I like it.  I like sequels to good movies if there is some creativity involved to make them good movies.  Does that make me stupid?  Maybe, but I’m leaning towards no.  I’m happy that I don’t have to pick apart the movies I watch in my spare time.  I don’t need it spoonfed but I don’t want to have to disect what makes a movie so original.  Just because I’d rather go see Spiderman 3 on May 4th rather than go to an art museum, that doesn’t mean I’m stupid.  It’s not like I’m going to run around the theatre dressed up as Spiderman.  Instead I’m going to run around dressed up like John Urbanski who doesn’t care what some German theorists think about his intelligence based on what movies he watches.

How’s that for an ugly American rant?

According to Margaret Cho, I’m a unicorn

I knew that was going to be my title since she said that in the very beginning of the movie.  But seriously, welcome the the JU Lounge on this beautiful day (now night) in April.  With less then 5 weeks to go I managed a few things today that made it a very good day.  I had a good swim, I played some wiffleball, I was still happy about the Yankees first won yesterday, I had my first ice cream cone of the season (a choc/vanilla twist with choc. sprinkles), and instead of having to read an essay by some  confusing theorist, I got to watch a very funny stand-up comedy movie. 

 I want to start off with something that I just found very funny and that is the fact that the line “Hi, my name is Gwen and I’m here to wash your vagina” was said about 20 times and it just got more and more hysterical each time.  End of story.

If it wasn’t for writing down some things she said, I would have forgotten I was watching this for a class.  However there are a few things I had to write down so I could put them in the return of……

The Word(s) of the Day: “fag hag”, “heterophobic”, “KKKMart” (”I don’t mean to judge them, but they’re assholes!”

Okay now moving on to some of the other stuff.  The story that Cho told throughout the movie was actually very interesting.  It shows just how stupid people can be.  For example (and one of my personal favorite things she said):

“They hired someone to help me be more asian.”

Are you serious?  But wait! It gets better.

“…the Asian thing isn’t working.  ….like it’s a gimik (sp?) I pull out of my ass every couple of years.”

Seriously, I would have issues with all this stuff going on to.  That’s without the whole weightloss and image thing that she had to keep.  It is crazy the amount of pressure we put on each other, and Cho had to experience the worst of it, being on TV.  Just the heartlessness we really give to people who are trying to make it but are just a certain body type.  The fact that when she began to cry on the set, the make up artists came over and powdered her back up to get rid of it.  Come on.  It’s not just a women thing here either, it goes both way and it’s ridiculous.  It’s great that Cho tells this story, and the way she tells it is even better.

I see how this goes along with what we were talking about with Butler, but I still don’t agree with Butler.  Yes it shows that the body is a performance, but that’s not a gender problem that’s a human being problem.  Here’s my theory: we as a society need to come back down to Earth and stop telling people you need to look like this when we don’t even look like that.  I liked this a lot it was funny but it carried an important message in an important story. 

This also applies to some other theorists that we’ve read and I had to come back and add on to this.  How about Rubin?  What defines a homosexual?  What defines an Asian woman?  What defines a straight man?  I’m serious about that last one and Cho is my example.  Since straight men are “scary” and it’s so rare to find a “straight, single, good looking guy….are you a unicorn?” doesn’t that in part mean that these kind of men are being defined by a homosexual?  How about women in general here.  Since the idea to have a perfect body is so profound in the media aren’t women being defined by other women?  Aren’t Asian-American women being defined by Asian women?  And yes, homosexual men are still being defined by straight men.  I hate to take something that was funny and apply it to theory but it works and in this case it’s something to think about.

Because I can: On another note I find it a personal necessity to point out Michael Phelps. (he’s the one swimming in the picture up there.)  During the World’s meet last week, every day when I watched Sports Center, Phelps would get about 20-30 seconds usually in the middle of the show, only once did he lead off during a 6pm Sports Center but it was literally a 30 sec. “by the way” and then it was back to the NFL. (umm…Super Bowl’s been over for 2 months…thanks anyways)  Phelps broke records, no shattered his own world records, like it was nothing and still he was overshadowed.  Phelps is 21 years old (2 years older then me for perspective) and is the Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, Albert Puljos, Michael Jordan of his sport.  He won 7 gold medals in 8 events (the last one his relay team was disqualified thanks to a teammate) and still he was pushed aside.  It was a week the world of swimming will not see again for a long time (or at least until Phelps swims at the Olyimpics next summer) and it was still pushed aside.  It’s ridiculous that Arena Football and sports that are in their offseason get more attention then the amazing performances that Phelps accomplished.  How can ESPN be the world wide leader of sports when the leave out something as amazing as this that took place at an event called “Worlds.”

Now without technical difficulties…

Welcome back to a delayed entry in the Lounge.  Last night I tried to write again in my blog and my password was not working and the e-mail for the new one didn’t come until this morning so hence I’m writing about Butler now.  I don’t want to repeat everything said in class today since I got much more out of that then I did out of my inital reading of Butler (this wasn’t going to be a very long post based on what I understood) but I still have this nagging question that Butler has left with me.

WHY???  What do you want to accomplish with this essay?  I thought about it but I really didn’t even know how to ask a valid question that made any sense.  I just don’t understand how you can not only take the gender out of a person, but also take the human aspect.  In that regard what are we?  You can’t define yourself on nothing especially if your soul supposedly isn’t very important in the big picture.  Even the things that we do as a “performance”, most of them occur naturally without us thinking about them.  Even more to the point, isn’t a drag show a performance?  It has the word “show” right in the title!  I don’t know but this essay was not one of my favorites by any means.  Can we go back to the center please?

Welcome to April Blogging

Well it’s finally April and that means only 5 more weeks until summer.  Unfortunetly it also means there’s still 5 more weeks until summer.  I like to see the glass half full so lets go with the first option.

Thursday was St. Rose’s English Symposium, so I went to the panel discussion on the English major after St. Rose.  I would have liked to see some of the other time slots, but unfortunately Thursday is geology lab day for me and I wasn’t able to.  But the discussion on life after St. Rose was pretty interesting.  Personally, I am an English Education major so I’m not to worried about what I want to do after my final semester, but I found it interesting at the many different options that are available to English majors.  It is because of this that I find my connection to theory (and I’m going to hate myself after this):  Derrida’s idea of the center not being the center. 

The resident “bad boy” theorist states in his essay that “the center is not the center” (my response being “huh?”).  Derrida uses the example of post-World War II Europe, and the fact that they acknowledged other cultures so they their own center was not the center of attention. 

With this panel discussion, I realized that English was we know it is not the center of the conversation.  Yes, this was for English majors but we were experiencing a look into other possibilities that can be used with English, but that is not necessarily the job or profession at least I would associate with an English degree.  The first idea was about law school after English, something that blew my mind as I have never even thought of touching law.  For the time the representative from Albany Law School was talking, I realized that the center had shifted from English to Law, even though this was en English Symposium.  Same with the idea of librarians.  It didn’t blow my mind as much as the law and English combination, but still the center was temporarily moved from English to library skills and the different uses.  It was actually pretty scary for me that the only theorist I could think of during this whole thing was Derrida.  I retract that last statement, it was downright terrifying.  Still I found the different ideas presented during the panel discussion to be very interesting.

Because I can: April 1st marks one of my favorite days of the entire year: MLB Opening Day.  This day reresents more to me then just baseball, but the true beginning of spring and the mark that summer is right around the corner.  (seriously just flip over the calender page.)  Tonight I route for the St. Louis Cardinals (for the 13th consecutive game dating back to the playoffs in October) to beat the Mets, but tomorrow it’s about the Yankees.  Happy first day of the Baseball Season and let’s hope the Cardinals make the Mets look like April Fools.  (except for David Wright because I need him for my fantasy team).

Okay

So i didn’t really know what to write about Foucalt on Sunday as I was experiencing a large writers block and was feeling not all there to begin with.  Now after some class discussion and a mind that’s a little less foggy then it was two nights ago I welcome you to the Lounge. 

So Foucalt really got me thinking about the way we view sex in society today.  We really send some very mixed signals about it.  It’s either a very bad thing and it should never be discussed ever, or it’s a very good thing for the reason of a) it’s a beautiful sacred thing or b) it makes you “the man“, or it’s just subtle and we all want it whether we like to admit it or not. 

As much as we pretend we want to cover up sex and not talk about it, that ends up being a load of crap.  Sure we don’t want everyone knowing about our own personal life, but even that doesn’t apply to everyone, but we love hearing about celebreties or seeing it on movies.  Using my Titanic example from class, I promise this will sound better this time, it ended up being a very vert successful movie.  Would it have been successful as just a ship sinking.  Probable, but once you add the love story into it that’s what pushed it over the top for most Americans.  After all, it’s now a common fact that this couldn’t have happened without this.  But seriously sex is everywhere because it sells.  When I went to check my e-mail this morning this is what I found on the Yahoo page as the features headline that Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox would be kissing on Cox’s dying TV show, “Dirt”, shortly after Aniston gets her butt grabbed by Cox.  Isn’t there a war or something going on?  Or a basketball tournament? 

So yes, sex sells it’s prevelant, it’s everywhere.  However, sex is also tried to be kept covered up.  In college dorms, like we talked about, do you really think putting girls and boys on different floors is going to help?  If the buildings have stairs and/or elevators then I’d go with no.  How about seperating the buildings?  You really think a short walk is going to stop an 18 year old kid fresh out of high school?  Once again I’m leaning towards no. 

One of the most amusing rules to me in my high school was “NO PDA.”  (PDA=Public Displays of Affection)  So you’d get in trouble for kissing your girlfriend before going to class in the hallway or something like that.  But what about SDA?  (Secret Displays of Affection)  Are those okay?  Is it an out of sight out of mind kind of thing?  Really there are times when people try to hard to control sexual acts.  You’re telling me I can get in trouble for kissing my girlfriend quickly before class but if I sneak off during class and hit a home run I’m okay as long as no one sees?  Seriously though it’s obvious not appropraite to do certain things in public and that seems to be working fine, but it’s that mixed message that is sent to kids now.  We all have out own beliefs and even if it’s akward for the parents and kids (it’s going to be) you have to think that it would help if parents were just honest enough with their kids so they can make their own desicions.

Back to Foucault, my problem with him was he was also sending mixed messages.  I’m all for playing devil’s advocate for the sake of a discussion but c’mon.  He just gives every opinion on the book and just makes it so contradicting.  Please, just do what you do at the end throughout the whole essay.  Be direct.  Same with soceity, be direct.  That will cause a lot less confusion. 

Because I can: I haven’t done one of these in a while so I thought today would be a good time.  I went with my sister to see the Extreme Makeover Home Edition house today and it is beautiful.  Stangely enough I ended up looking at it from a friend from high school’s front yard because she lives on that street, but that’s besides the point.  The fact that they not only take care of that one family, but also take care of the neighbor hood by fixing their lawns after all is said and done and paying them for the inconvience of being there.  There was this great attitude in the area and everyone from the volunteers, to the spectators, to the people who work with the show all the time were in very good spirits enjoying the experience.  There’s something very good to be said when you can get so many people together to do a commonly good thing for a family who does great things and needed some help.  Just the fact alone that they had to turn away more volunteers then they could accept, myself being one of them, says quite a bit.  With all the bad things that go on in the world, it’s nice to know what can happen when people pull together.