Write I shall. Well I'm pretty damned stressed right now. I have this spectacularly lame speech outline due Wednesday. The speech is on the benefits of supporting local art. I need four non-internet based sources and its god damned tough to find them. not too many people give a shit about art and also want to write about why its cool. I also don't think there are too many hard facts on why supporting other people's expression is good for both parties, but I don't think I can get away with changing my topic this late in the game. I want to do this one justice as well. Shit. So there are basically two things I do when I'm stressed: I swear more and I listen to lodger. I swear plenty when I'm relaxed but this stressing really brings the sailor out in me, so forgive me if this blog gets vulgar. Lodger is this cool Finnish indie band that I discovered one day during my travels of the inter-network. They are pretty pessimistic but I dig the sound.
I will now be taking suggestions from the studio audience.
There seems to be a lot of talk on plurk about how class was operated today. For me it was really no big deal. I actually liked the old timey feel it had to it. I am in no way trying to say that I don't like all the media that Tony uses but I'm used to classes similar to the one we had today. I felt like it was somewhat easier to follow what direction the conversation in the room was going. I don't want every class to be like that, but it was cool. People were also saying that we didn't discuss the books as much as we ought to have. I find this odd. I feel that we did in fact discuss the reading, or that what we discussed was derived from the reading. Also I've have always been under the impression that if you want to discuss something in 238, just say so; especially if it has to do with assigned books. but what the fuck do I know.
Thats all I have to say about that.
I went to the Shins concert last Saturday. It was a great show. pretty damn rainy. The opening act was called Delta Spirit. they were good, I had never heard of them before; the lead singer kind of has a bob dylan/willie nelson voice, but he screams it out sometimes. they had a cool sound. Some people complained about the rain but I thouroghly enjoyed it. Rain doesn't bother me that much, I guess that makes sense with my choice to come to school here. For some reason I expected the lead singer in the Shins to somehow look different than he did. I don't really know why. It does not matter anyway, just odd the way our imaginations give us funny preconceptions isn't it?
Thats all I have to say about that...
I think I just figure out what I should have spent this entire blog talking about: this suggestion that aestetics makes us animals.
"Levinas used to recount that in the camp where he was a prisoner, in the living form of Bobby, a dog, some humanity was bestowed upon him. Marching back to the camp at night after having endured the plight of phisical labor, Levinas was suddenly greeted. Bobby came running up to him, recognising him, while the nazi guard treated him like an abhorred dog."
I'm not quite making the connection between aestetics ans animals at the momment, but I think what Kac and Ronnel are trying to get is that aestetics, which are undeniably important to Life Extreme, can put us into social groups we have not anticipated, as well as alienate us from those we do not necessarily want to be alienated from. I realize that the nazis are an odd example of the latter but that Bobby seemed to recognize Levinas as a dog seems to back up my idea. I also realize that of course Levinas did not want to be treated in a way that would allow a dog to identify with him, I think the point is that he was able to find some humane treatment and comfort despite the extremely poor conditions he was living in. A very optomistic view indeed. Perhaps the animal factor comes in in the sense that we have the tendency to form "packs" based on similar aestetic tastes. Packs lead to a pack mentalitiy and are often risky to less established members of society.
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