ARCHIVE - Marie's blog

ARCHIVE - cyborgs in rocky IV

2007-12-05T23:59:11-08:00

I just watched the fourth Rocky movie, the one where he fights the Russian boxer Drago. Near the end of the movie when Rocky is training for his big fight with Drago there's a training montage (of the sort Rocky movies are famous for) where Rocky has been placed out in the wilderness of Russia in the middle of nowhere where he has no access to modern training equipment. The montage is shots of Rocky training by doing things like chopping wood and hauling sleds full of equipment interspersed with shots of Drago using modern industrial equipment, there's a lot of metal and clanging sounds involved. This serves to humanize Rocky and associating Drago with all the metal establishes him as a cyborg. During the boxing match at the end of the movie, Drago is starting to lose the fight to Rocky and says to his trainer, "he is not a man, he is made of iron." So there's something going on with shifting the boundaries of the body making a person able to win.

Drago and his wife are never seen being affectionate, and Rocky and his wife are always shown kissing and hugging. So, the way the two men relate to their wives establishes Rocky as more of a "human" as well. Drago's wife being de-sexualized also changes (removes?) her gender and establisher her as a robo character.

ARCHIVE - there are no strings on NSYNC

2007-12-05T23:37:19-08:00

I was re-watching the NSYNC video for the song "it's gonna be me". in the video the members of the group are dressed as dolls and are shown on a store shelf as if they are for sale. This video was made when there were a great deal of questions about their authenticity as artists or musicians because they were a "manufactured" group- that is they were selected for the boy-band by the record company.

"it's gonna be me" appears on the album "no strings attached" the album cover for which depicts the members of NSYNC as puppets. This is another comment on the speculations on group lack of validity due to the fact that their music was created by a group of people and not by the singers alone.

A line from the song "it's gonna be me" is "all that I do is not enough for you," to me this is another comment directed at those who question the singers' validity as artists.

ARCHIVE - week 7 corpus post: my brother in law was michael jackson

2007-11-28T14:35:41-08:00

In 1995 Michael Jackson made a video for his song "Childhood" which is on the album History: past, present and future, book 1. Michael Jackson chose a little boy to play himself as a child for the video. The boy he chose is a white boy. who happens to be my brother in law Ryan. There are a number of things that could mean, he might see himself as a white person, or wish he was white as is commonly speculated, and he may be commenting on those speculations.

the video can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVJscGa5vbc

ARCHIVE - metropolis

2007-11-28T14:24:56-08:00

the flesh Maria is associated with religion, and by extension righteousness. When she's addressing all the workers in the catacombs she's standing in front of a bunch of crosses. But you can also see the distorted shadows of the crosses in the background. I'm not sure how that fits in, but it probably means something. Maria spends a lot of time and energy announcing that Freder is the "heart" and that he's going to save the world. I think that Maria did just as much active saving as Freder. The book of revelations talks about false prophets being a sign that the real messiah is coming soon. and there was a false messiah in Metropolis, the robot Maria. Maybe the distorted shadow crosses behind Maria in the catacombs had something to do with the flesh Maria and the robot Maria being part of the same whole. If the flesh Maria had not been so perfect, perhaps the creation of the robot alter ego would not have been necessary to complete her self? I'm not sure I really think that. It's just a thought.

ARCHIVE - feminist films field trip

2007-11-28T11:40:15-08:00

just before screening the film we watched with all the loud banging noises where we saw each frame scroll through instead of one image afteranother, the hosts of the program said that it was significant that it had been produced on video, and the artist had used the fact that it would be shown on a monitor as a tool. So, it is interesting that we actually watched it on film and not on video. on a screen and not on a monitor.

I really enjoyed the film that was made in the woman’s kichen, where she was reading the wok directions. At one point near the end, she said something along the lines of -and now you know everything you need to be a real asian- clearly this is a commentary on cultural approriation and she was making a joke about people who think that having “asian” things in your home makes you asian. after the film was shown, the hosts said that that particular film maker would often just set up a camera in her own kitchen and record herself interacting with her own posesions. So if we can assume that she really did have the electric wok and the japanese cook book in her home who was she commenting on? was she just making a joke about her own cultural appropriation, or didI misinterprete it entirely?

ARCHIVE - tuesday week 7 in class writtings

2007-11-28T11:38:55-08:00

#1

I can see your retina floating in the empty space between your forehead and your hair.
how do you walk with all six legs of yours?
it’s a quarter after the hour.
no wait, that watch has been stopped for decades. I have no idea
it is with your eyes, under the stairs or in the closet on the shelf behind you
resting on some couch, the end of it, near the wrist is purple and blotchy as if it were bruised in the severing
waves to me
it waits for you in some dark attic
where is your other hand?
the current which courses through your circuits is no different than that which coursees through those of any other woman.
soft hair and skin
you, universal different from any other woman
a fold, a ripple in no dance and no water
it would be a glitch
if G-d came and blew away with a single breath all you know,

#2

the object’s ability to function is not based on what is “there.” there is something there that is totally not there. the pressence of something that does not have a form. in order for he ritual to be effective. they are also an extension of my femininity. I bring out the feminine pressence of G-d in my on self in order to find it on my arm, on my head, and in the room with me.

#3

As I was floating down the street one day, I saw a park full of trees. As it was a lovely fall day all the leaves were begginning to change their colors. the leaves fell from the trees and driffted gracefully toward the ground. I floated along through this enchanting scenery when suddenly, “FFFFFT!”
   “Oh my! Excuse me,” said a lovely young whoopie cusion.
   “I’m terribly sorry, I was distracted by the foliage,” I said, flustered.
   “I didn’t see you either, I’m such a noodle head, I’m so sorry.”
   “There’s no harm done. though it appears we are both a bit deflated.”
   “So we are.”
   “Since we are both alone, perhaps you would like to jion me on my walk?”
   The whoopie blushed and said, “I would like that very much.”
   We walked down through the park to the pond and sat down on a bench. We spent many hours laughing and talking. Before we knew it the sun was beginning to set.
   “Oh my!” said the other whoopie, “I didn’t realise it was so late! I really must be getting home.”
   “May I walk you home?” I asked.
   “Certainly.” said the other whoopie. And off we walked, down the road into the sunset.

ARCHIVE - barbie the Jew?

2007-11-07T19:15:33-08:00

This is so funny! some one made a barbie who's accessories include tefillin and a torah scroll. doesn't that beat high heels and a pink purse?

http://www.geniza.net/bar/barbie.shtml

ARCHIVE - corpus week 7: tom thumb

2007-11-07T12:36:57-08:00

In the 1958 musical film tom thumb there's a musical number entittled "Talented Shoes" in which a man is at the market selling magic shoes, shoes which when put on enable the wearer to dance extraordinarily well. The shoes are sort of a prosthesis in that they change the physical abilities of the wearer. Sometimes, the shoes take over and the person cannot stop dancing. In the film this never turns into anything terrible or dangerous, it's just wacky.

ARCHIVE - corpus week 7: Time Machine

2007-11-06T21:23:34-08:00

Today in her lecture Julia mentioned the concept of social classes changing the way bodies look or act. I don't know if anyone is familiar with or has read The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, but in that book a man travels into the future and learns that the working class has evolved into this sub-human race of monsters that lives underground and eats members of the upper class, who are basically just a bunch of beautiful idiots. Clearly it's a commentary on how he saw the class system a the time he was writing (1890's I think) and not actually meant to be ho he thought the world would be in a few thousand years.

ARCHIVE - thomas kinkade

2007-11-01T12:37:00-07:00

yesterday in seminar a couple of people brought up Thomas Kinkade and his paintings of cottages and whatnot. I ran across some paintings of his that are of white Jesus, and some landscapes of Israel, and one of a bunch of Jews at the wailing wall. I might be offended by that last one, but I probably just think these are all really funny. I've attached some of the ones I think are the best. By "best" I really mean worst.

ARCHIVE - corpus week 6: detachment from individuality and attachment to eternal

2007-10-30T16:54:21-07:00

The question that Elizabeth posed at the end of lecture today was, "does the play [The Good Person of Szechuan] help tear down the notion that the self is intrinsic? And if so is that useful?" I think that one of the things in my life that has helped in the long involved process of removing myself from an inwardly focused state and into one of general in-touched-ness (although it hadn't occured to me to look at it this way until now) is participating in religious ritual. One of the things that I do in the mornings- I explained this to about half a dozen people today while talking about my winter project- is wrap tefillin. What are two small leather boxes, one that is tied to the head and one that is tied to the arm. One of the blessing that is traditionally recited while wearing them is, "ידאת את יה-ה" which means, "I will know my lord" know meaning in the biblical sense. So wrapping tefillin is a way to know G-d in the flesh. Because the Jewish concept of G-d is not as a corporeal being, but as some universal all encompassing concept that permeates an inhabits all things both living and inanimate, this also means that wrapping tefillin is a way to connect to the universal contentiousness, and hence a way to detach from notions of an inherent individual self.

One of the blessings that is said during the morning prayer is, "מטבו אהלך יעכב משקנותךא ישרל" which means, "how good are your dwellings Jacob, and your tents oh Israel." (not Israel the country, this is from before there was such a thing) the word mishkenotekha meaning your tents is an anagram of Shekhina (I know it's not in English but it is in Hebrew, just trust me on this one) which is the "feminine" aspect of G-d, and it means the presence of G-d. So, this prayer is intended to call to mind the image of the world as a tent we dwell in with the presence of the eternal. This can also be an image of the collective consciousness, and an image in which there is no individual self.

ARCHIVE - corpus week 6: morality

2007-10-29T18:06:11-07:00

The Good Person of Szechwan reaises an interesting question. Being generous is one of the things that one might take for granted as something one should "always" do. But should one draw the line at being taken advantage of? I've posted a like to an article on morality in which the writer says that telling the truth is something that everyone should "always" do, and anyone who even questions that is clearly a bad person. But- to run the risk of being called a "bad" person- surely a situation can be hypothesized in which lying is permissible, what about people who his Jews from Nazi's during the holocaust and of course denied hiding them when the gestapo came to search their house? surely that lie is allowed.

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/36423/jewish/What-is-Morality.htm

ARCHIVE - corpus week 4 (belated): transgenderedness in the Talmud

2007-10-29T17:34:25-07:00

so therre's this rabbi in the Talmud who there are lots of stories about. in one story he is basically a cop. When he sees that the people he turns over to the authorities are punished or killed, he feels so bad he decides he needs to repent. As penance, he tells his wife to put a sheet underneath his body every night for sixty days. Every morning for the sixty days he wakes up and has bled all over the sheet. Judith Z. Abrams says that the sheets are a reference to the sheets used to deliver a baby, or this is a reference to menstrual blood. Somehow embodying femaleness was a way to repent.

ARCHIVE - wait, are you just flattering me so you can oppress me?

2007-10-23T17:56:57-07:00

There are at least two kinds of racism: the kind where the racist says they hate people of color, and the kind where the racist loves people of color. But not in a way where they seek alliance and understanding, it often turns into cultural appropriation and/or a new set of oppressive stereotypes. But it happens to women too, I just found this article that says that women aren't allowed to wear tzitzit because they are too smart and perfect and they don't need them. Tzitzit are those little white tassels orthodox Jewish men sometimes wear that are tied onto an undershirt. Maybe you noticed me wearing them. They're suposed to help you remember to say prayers and to not do bad stuff. Just like a little extra reminder. Aparently women never do anything wrong, and don't need any help. And it is hubris for them to wear tzitzit. I guess I'm in good shape then. Or maybe I'm just committing hubris.

The article is here: http://www.askmoses.com/article.html?h=150&o=2396

ARCHIVE - corpus week 5: ritual purity and "the temple"

2007-10-23T17:02:23-07:00

I have a kosher kitchen. That means that I have two sets of dishes, one for meat and one for dairy so that I always make absolutely %100 sure that I never eat meat and dairy products togther. "Meatness" or "Dairyness" can be transfered to objects that are nether meat nor dairy. Example: if I had an apple, and I put that apple on a meat-plate (not a plate made of meat but a plate designated for meat products) then that apple becomes meat as far as its kosher status goes. Then, if I picked up that apple and put it on a dairy plate, the apple becomes unkosher or treif. Not Only that, but the dairy plate is also unkosher, because the apple transfered it's meatness to the dairy plate. The apple can never be kosher again and it has to be thrown away or given to someone who doesn't keep kosher. The plate however, can be made re-kosher by dipping it in boiling water or emersing it in a mikveh or ritual bath. I think this is an interesting exaple of how objects not only fashion bodies or spaces, but other objects.

Elizabeth mentioned in her lecture this (Tuesday) morning about relics preceding churches and how churches are often built around relics. An interesting example of this is the wailing wall or the western wall of what used to be "The Temple" fore the Jews, and is currently a very important mosque. We all know that the huge war that is currently going on there has a little to do with this wall and this mosque. But what not every one know is that having or not having that temple has changed Judaism as a whole dramatically. There's a large number of Jewish rituals that revolve around having that temple, and can only be performed in that temple. For instance animal sacrifices and the pronunciation of one of G-d's 72 names. There are also special rules revolving around the western wall. Women are allowed to wrap tefilin in their own homes or in private, but if they wrap them at the wall they can be arrested. So this place not only fashions religion, but gender as well, and it becomes an excuse for religiously sanctioned sexism.