i am not sure if i don't want to do the work, because i find the work invalid, or i am growing a carapce of apathy as a defense mechincaism, because i dont think i can do the work (last essay for lalonde's revisions)

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P1010014, a photo by PinkMoose on Flickr.

la freeway cloverleafs
bucks and antlers entangling in fight
aieral photos of waterparks

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P1010382, a photo by PinkMoose on Flickr.

hooray, hooray, the first of may/
outdoor fucking begins today

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P1010083, a photo by PinkMoose on Flickr.

ome great things i saw at papier 13

1. Edmund Alleyn at Simon Blais-- Bright purple serigraph from the late 70s, of a shirtless man in a cowboy hat, either cocky and straight boy play acting, or terribly queer irony--the reproduction of kitsch prevents us from seeing it w/o jaded eyes--made better b/c it was a work that was mostly done by a cannoical quebocois abstractionist, b-list working the odd angles of the unquestionable. 
2. New Edmonton Art Gallery!  David Candier, including some work by Blair, of canonical books in tight iron boxes and theatrical locks. 
3. Lynn Cohen Brick Sales at Art 45. One of the occupied territory works, but one i had not seen before, the formica frame, the sans serif title, and the image itself, of a warehosue that sold brick siding, a set of grids in a grid pattern, interupted by walls and desks. One of the things that I keep returning to, w. Cohen, is how much of a formalist point she makes, how difficult the power of the aesthetics are. (Same booth, two anonnymous argentine photos of tattooed prisoners, great accidental compisitions, some ethical problems) 
4. Adrian Wilmison's Rackhamesque Dyptch of a single figure walking thru a forrest. 
5. Eric Daudelin's Fontanesque circle of gold leaves. 
6. Jean McEwan's very soft, compostion of ragged edged sqaures, in rotting leaf tones
7. Brian Goombridge at Susan Hobbs, In a room full of collage that was too busy, too clashy, too precious, or abstract to the point of banality (see Jacob Whitby), this peice, a black and white photocopy of a duerer, abutting a black and white photocopy of a photo of a mies tower, each w. their own caption, seperated and floating on a bright yellow grid, was intimate, slightly sweet, and more than a little sour. 
8. Being in Quebec, less Molinari than I thot, but gobs and gobs of Tousiangant, the targets i am still on the fence about, but the 73 HCB, look all spacey and contentless, perfect reflection of the failures of the optical expirments of the 70s that have failed, and so terribly fashionable--continues to be one of Canada's great colourists--but mostly because he just couldn't keep his taste in check. The HCB ones are kind of minimal, two concentric circles, lots of white space, in dark purples, beiges and green--completely mechicnal and designed for government offices, and they are great for it. (I am finding more and more, a couple of things, the fewer concentric circles in a Tousigant, toe more i like it, and the less neon his colours were, the fonder i am of him--the 70s did him no favours but these are from the 70s)
   
9. Maggs Peirott, which I am still trying to figure out exactly how I feel,
   
   

Thinking of that Kim Gordon Article:

a) Is it the case that most of my aesthetic tastes have been inherited from here, whole hog, somewhere around me being 13? (Reading about her in Details at SJSA, the idea of newness before the material of newness)
b) Was the divorice less about Thurston fucking around, then a kind of exhaustion at the world thot was a perfect post-femminist division of labour that once again turned out to the sublimation of female work under male hipness.
c) how often do we have to hear stories of the aesthetic and political left--of Waldman, DiPrima, hooks, Carolyn Cassady, Hettie Jones, and other women expected to do domestic work and the work of aesthetics) and how often, in married couples, do we continue to assume not only the production is monolithic, but thru the lens of masculine taste.
d) So, not that it's not really our biz, but is Gordon saying her divorce, is a priotizing of her own aesthetic, and separating from Moore's, just as Moore's choice of sexual partner become a question less of ethics and more of aesthetics? Even Post-Riot Grrls, even post-Love, post-the Slits, the Raincoats, Poly Sterene, Wendy Williams, Kathleen Hanna, even before that, all of that Le Tigre Hot Topic canon (a canon that is v. v. close to who my friends talk about, who we love, who we agree on, the teenbeat posters of our post-queer future) (though it doesn't feature Gordon, why is that?), do we still refuse that a girl can play a guitar, with as much ferocious quality as a boy. (and that painting, raising a kid, making chicken, playing guitars, designing clothes, producing films, et al etc could be considered creative acts--so perhaps the advantage of that Elle interview is Gordon talking about splitting from Thurston in a way that resembles the splitting of music off from other work and other capacities--b/c you sense that Thurston perhaps prioritized the rock and roll while doing other stuff?)
e) Which, you know, makes me wonder, can i be Kim Gordon when I grow up?

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P1010054, a photo by PinkMoose on Flickr.

1. flanuer exp. 
2. pilgrim exp. 
3. intro to texts (esp) dates)
4. benjamin as flanuer 
5. benjamins text as flanuer (Debord)
6. benjamin as martyr (Taussig)
7. benjamins texts as relics of martyrdom (Susan Buck Morris and Panorama)
8. textual intervention as act of pilgremege.  (Benjamins archive)
9. chaucer as pilgrim 
10. chaucers text as pilgrmage (narratology/directionality)
11. chaucer's text reworked (dimshaw)
12. meeting together on the same road 
13. violence of text (barthes) 
14. historical context and reader autonomy 
15. conclusion and historicizing ambiguity. 

The word is sometimes used to refer to the methods and general approach to empirical research of a particular discipline, or even a particular large study, although the term ‘research techniques’ is perhaps more apt in this context. The principal concern of methodology is wider philosophy of science issues in social science, and the study of how, in practice, sociologists and others go about their work, how they conduct investigations and assess evidence, how they decide what is true and false. The topics addressed include whether the social sciences are in fact sciences; whether the social scientist needs to understand a sequence of social actions to explain it fully; whether there are laws in the social sciences which can predict as well as explain; whether research can be, or should be, value-free; causation and causal powers; inductive and deductive theory; verification and falsification; and other problems in the philosophy of knowledge and science (most of which are treated under separate headings in this dictionary). See also neo-Kantianism; neo-positivism. 
Oxford Dicitonary of Soc. 

Pronunciation:  Brit. /ˌmɛθəˈdɒlədʒi/ , U.S. /ˌmɛθəˈdɑlədʒi/

Etymology:  < method n. + -ology comb. form, probably after post-classical Latin methodologia... (Show More)

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  Originally: the branch of knowledge that deals with method generally or with the methods of a particular discipline or field of study; (arch.) a treatise or dissertation on method; (Bot.) †systematic classification (obs. rare). Subsequently also: the study of the direction and implications of empirical research, or of the suitability of the techniques employed in it; (more generally) a method or body of methods used in a particular field of study or activity.

OED

The general study of method in particular fields of enquiry: science, history, mathematics, psychology, philosophy, ethics. Obviously any field can be approached more or less successfully and more or less intelligently. It is tempting, then, to suppose that there is one right mode of enquiry logically guaranteed to find the truth if any method can. The task of the philosopher of a discipline would then be to reveal the correct method and to unmask counterfeits. Although this belief lay behind much positivist philosophy of science, few philosophers now subscribe to it. It places too great a confidence in the possibility of a purely a priori ‘first philosophy’, or standpoint beyond that of the working practitioners, from which their best efforts can be measured as good or bad. This standpoint now seems to many philosophers to be a fantasy. The more modest task of methodology is to investigate the methods that are actually adopted at various historical stages of investigation into different areas, with the aim not so much of criticizing but more of systematizing the presuppositions of a particular field at a particular time (see also naturalized epistemology). There is still a role for local methodological disputes within the community of investigators of some phenomenon, with one approach charging that another is unsound or unscientific, but logic and philosophy will not, on the modern view, provide an independent arsenal of weapons for such battles, which indeed often come to seem more like political bids for ascendancy within a discipline.

oxford soc

it's ironic, in the midst of anxiety and depression, how comforting and how triggering witnessing, even in the most abstract sense, a suicide attempt. green line going west was shut down at lionel giroux, i was going east.

 I have been thinking of the supposed radicalism of the Annie's position of late, especially considering the natue of country's recent conservatism. The critical opinion seems to be that they are breaking apart the Post-Garth soft rock politeness. But country has not been very polite.  The pendulum has swung of late--critics ignore what has occurred in the work of John Rich and his eventual descendants. The great thing (and I think the under rated) thing about this age of Rich, is that it's pretty gender neutral. From Gretchen Wilson onward--the fun has occurred to women as much as men. The Annies position on pleasure is not radically new. What is radically new, is it's use of pleasure as a disruptive strategy against a slew of targets, that seem to be obvious but haven't really been addressed. In Hush Hush, we can list family (especially the silence of the front pew), alcoholism (rehab, vodka being snuck, eggnog instead of beer), performative peity (the spectacular line "Well daddy's reading propaganda/And he's talking about the end of days), and even a discussion of grass so casual it might as well come from 70s outlaws. So what becomes new, is a different kind of integrative either/or.  this is not partying on Saturday and church on Sunday--but a recognition of the tense negotiations between the south as a libertine's playhouse and the south as a sanctified space. The tension, is that though both of those exist at the same time, in the argot of the time, the Annies suggesting that not only the hypocrisy of it, but the silence of it is foundational is what is really left unsaid. That to expect the south to exist without the "hush hush" is to expect the south to exist not at all. (It's actually what makes the Annies great--but it sells, and it ends up on CMT, and it wins awards, and people sing along--so it's not subversive--one wonders what that means, if everyone knows what's going on, and everyone is speaking it aloud, does it become a steam valve where the real work doesn't need to be done--we talk about drugs and sex and Jesus and pot, but we don't write songs about how grand daddy fucked the maid, or that the one drop law is still a growing concern, or that Billy can't take his husband to Sunday dinner, or why all of those foreclosures, or the real history of slavery or what exactly happened at theTallahatchie Bridge) The personal is political. This is a political song. But it's politics will only go as far as the market will allow. (As a song--the brilliant chorus, the harmonics, the guitar work, how brilliant the whole thing hangs together, it's a ten--but the Annies always make me a bit nervous). 

federal tories are connected to quebec corruption

these collections of rent party cards, from Langston Hughes collections, suggest a way for communities of resistance to for, around the supplying of basic needs.

Phillp Sterns makes really lovely Glitch inspired tapestries.

these gifs of chicago ice flows are really great examples of representation and localised geography, plus, pretty.


Scott Pare Phillips v. subtle photos of the impressions that clothing leaves on womens bodies, has a spare eroticism and explains why i refuse to wear socks.

Agnes Martin, Milk River, 1963.  (milk river is near lethbridge, the silt causes the water to turn white, milk weed grows on its bank, the sap of the milk weed is gummy and white)

Marricone's  boycotting Tarintino's future work b/c of violence seems disnegenous.

domestic elevators.

being in quebec  has made me realise how under rated hard edged abstraction is--these tiny and human scale geometric work by john mclaughin suggest a tiny bit of a  revival, note how they look like bahuas era graphic design, and how that inspired post war american aesthetics. essay is worth reading too.

a conservators notes on some of the problems with still paintings that ha ve not seen the light of day in decades--including the usual cracking, and the unusal (black mould)

custom lego in the design of arabic architechture

high end english lingerie makes my pussy wet

Sheila Hicks, 1974 (one of the things i love about fiber art in the 70s is how willing it is to be ugly)

twine game  about the politics of the clinic, if you are transgendered, a little women's studies 101, but pretty perfect in it's use of a new medium.

read this  article in the nyrb about the tensions between american and french academic culture, the nature of celebrity, the problem of location, and the culture of the academia, as it releates to derrida and then go stew.

a lot  has been written about the new brad paisley single, some of which is by me at the juke box, but the linked essay is a really great run down of why he is important.

i have been  listening to the Peter Pears rendition of the Britten Chamber Opera Turn of the Screw (literal chamber opera--james has never quite been american or english, and the poltiics of the parlour for the anglos are always a bit different) and i really love how horrorfied, and airless, and ambigious and freudian/family secret it is. Apparently the new Brooklyn staging is a mess (which is why i have been listening to the Pears), but the nonense latin is deeply intended and queer--which makes me wonder about how much the neo-classical instincts in early 20th century britian were a kind of queer cant (the article talks about Auden and Britten being school teachers, and that the latin in the opera coming from primers--but one could add Hausman, and Wilde's use of Latin--and so Britten' use of James as a way of discussing family secrets becomes a kind of way to parse James' use of english as queer cant, decades before Sedgewick.


the sally draper poems

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P1010091, a photo by PinkMoose on Flickr.

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P1010032, a photo by PinkMoose on Flickr.

reading this week's nyer, about a sex scandal at Horace Mann (one of two or three there), the author buries this ppgh: in recent years reports have surfaced of sexual abuse at St Paul's, Andover, Exeter and other prominent private schools. (51). He then goes on to mention Buckingham Browne and Nichols. Canadians can add Selwyn Hall in Montreal, and UCC in Toronto.

Reports here, mean that those who have gone to the police, or have resulted in settlemants—reports that have been made part of the official discourse. The schools have a number of things in common—they were at the time of the reporting, or continue to be single sex, they encourage a kind of secrecy, they cost a lot of money to get into, they are boarding or have compoenents of boarding attached to them, etc etc.

Ironically—the closeness of a boarding school, might have been the schools undoing. Just as the homosocialness suggests a kind of boundry policing that allowed teachers to have sex with students to isolate them, into thinking that they were so special, that no one would understand the practice—when students returned to schools or found each other online, they found they were not alone, and a reversal of the loyalty kicked in. each of these settlements came when a group of boys got together, and worked collectively in order to find justice. There is something in the effort to make butch corps d'espirt

(personal overshare—though some of the recent renuinons online and in person have occurred since sjsa have shut down, so many of the people in the school are committed to it's program, and the loyalty does not seem to allow for this reversal to occur. The idea that what occurred at sjsa was abusive is not allowed to be part of the discourse. Also, the other schools mentioned had a sexual breach—the homosociality was breached sexually—noone at sjsa has admitted that they were fucked by other students, or fucked by other teachers, much of the role that other teachers had, was not to isolate and seperate students as a way to make them part of the elite, but to strip any indviduality off them, and working against the instincts of Selwyn or UCC.)

(which makes me think—is there scandals that are left to emerge re: Lynn Ward or Fork Hill or etc. Also, b/c of Byfield's influence—sjsa and most likely the other ones, were so fucking weird, that their might not have been distincit similarities)

Tried to explain to a flustered Adrienne Clarkson how the library at Mags worked today, and watched John Ralston Saul scare a baby into silence in the Communion Line. Didn't talk too him at Coffee afterwards, because i wasn't sure whether to say: Yr idea of the Metis concept of Canadian Identity is brilliant, or Yr reading of Foucault is hella fucked up.

four thots post dinshaw

a) So if we can agree that the essentializing project of modernism seperated sodomy, making it a social identity (and this social identity was later politicised); the medeival traditon stated that sodomy was interlocked with a set of other sins (ie lust, simony, usury, gluttony, heresy), these sins could be described as sins of excess--does the question for a queerness that seeks historical context, but refuses the essentializing instinct, become one of intergrating this history of excess?
b) could this excess of practice be seen as an excess of flesh? (thinking of Dinshaw's discussion of enlarged clits, Seneca's writing about dildos "sewn on", the dildos themselves, and how all of that could be considered a collapsing of sign and signifer?
c) does the devolpment of a theology of transubstaiton in the 14th and 15th century be a way of making the metaphorical body of Christ a self contained system, that avoids these excesses of flesh (i.e the idea that one could not perform the sacaremnt if one had a wet dream the night before?)
d) can we think of queerness in its idealizing the unstable and the liminal returning sexuality to its medeival orgins in sodomitical discourse, but w/o the prohibitive langauge?

when it comes to the queerness of Rberg and Johns, its two steps forward and three steps back

Rita Abrahamsen  explains why the intervention in Mali is not the same as the interventions in the middle east, and that Islam is not the same world wide.

The New York Transportation Department  Graphic Standards Manual was leaked. and speaking of type, the 1923 American Type Foundray Specimen Book.

Chuck's brilliant, haunting essay, on the implicaitons of McCready as a musician.

the mugsum of nothern cameron's use of mud buildings

Finnish Cabin in the woods.

Jaymanne writes brilliantly on the problems of  assuming video games are non linear, or they are the same kind of non-linearity as other kinds of texts.

SCans of the World Wide Diamond Novelty  Catalog.

26 Weird Hockey Fan Signs

Lisa Moore  writes on why poetry was so important to the second wave feminist movement, including discussions of the interactions between Lorde and Hacker.

Photos of the Maldive Pig Slaughter

Bachedlers Pencil Portrait of Ruscha, ca 74.

Blogpost from a physican, about the implications of naming pyscho-somatic conditions,  and what the interaction between body and mind means.

Fergus Filhey is an irish  collagist and abstract artist, who does v, small, messy, historically minded, bright, and quite intelligent works that build up texture thru a combonaiton of hand created mark making (drawing, painting) and thru the building up of found materials (foil, wood, plastic). it continues the tradition of the armeature becoming part of the picture plane--and is a good example of a recent trend (several of the painters in the current Collision 9 show at Parasian Laundry in Montreal, for one)

skiing through an abandonded modernist midrise near anchorage.

for all yr bowling alley side graphic needs.

apihtawikosisan writes about the slippery nature of naming in metis and aboroginal communities in Canada.


Mid 1950s video on Logging PRactices.