Yu Hong, Witnesses of the Rise, 2000
In celebration of Blogtrack's first birthday, I'm answering questions sent in by loyal readers with a high tolerance for douchery. For past month, the questions and comments have rolled in, and they'll be addressed in this exclusive two-part special.
I'd also like to thank those without whom this blog never would have made it into virtual reality:
Kelly, who urged me to further extrapolate on my disturbing views of the world for her enjoyment, and my mom, who, upon realizing she gave birth to a loud-mouthed megalomaniac, suggested a blog as a proper receptacle for my gratuitous unfounded opinions. Here's thanking her and hoping that she doesn't read this.
And now, the answers to a nation's most pressing questions.
does every artist living in a post-9/11 world have to acknowledge/understand 9/11 in their art?
"Post-9/11 world" means post-American security world, or post-American as the most popular kid in the class world. Some of the other kids apparently hate us, and others feel bad for us, and others don't care. If anything, we (Americans) are a little less sure of our place in the world, our place in America and even if our government is actively hostile toward us. 9/11 neatly bisected the country into opposite sides, so we're told, and although we complain about it, we actually love it. Can flip on the TV and either feel like Jon Stewart of O'Reilly gets us. Everything we do is a political statement. As people in their early 20s, we can can eat meat, get married or drive a car or not, and either choice is probably an indicator of how we vote.
I think acknowledging or understanding 9/11 in one's art is inevitable, as our entire country, and our entire world is now directly or indirectly defined by that event.
what's the deal with sleeping around?
Ahem. Certainly not something I know much about. But: when there are no rules, no one wins. So why does it seem like people still lose?
On the other hand, why the hell not? We're all just people, and we all want the same thing. Someone very wise once said "it's all about communication." Hurt feelings are not a good idea. ahem.
if i told you i liked electronica and folk music, what face-melting tracks would you put on my mix-tape?
"Sweet Love For Planet Earth" by the Fuck Buttons followed by "The Weight", "Carey" by Joni Mitchell and "Boyz" by MIA, "Loud Pipes" by Ratatat, "Helpless", "Baby's On Fire" by Brian Eno and "I'm Sensitive by Jewel." And that's just side A.
Your pants will be off before that tape comes close to flipping. And Neil Young protects against hurt feelings.
how the fuck are you pulling off that denim vest?
Stephen Hawking couldn't begin to guess.
Seriously.
But here's a hint: I apply it every morning with sweat from the back of Bruce Springsteen's neck, straight from the back of that '68 Chevy rolling down those hot New Jersey nights circa the Nixon administration.
is obama the man we've been waiting for? (and what do you think about the slew of hollywood movies coming out about superheroes that are actually watchable?)
I like this question, because, yes, I really do think he is what be have been waiting for because we truly believe he is. I haven't seen the country this excited since the Kennedys were alive and running. We all know that he won't save the day just by showing up, but he'll be the first president chosen by a new America. I think the blood of the America that quietly but truly cares about things, or desperately and angrily wants to see change, has been boiling long enough that it will win this election. We are sick of war and money, and know we have enough to enjoy life and want to, and that's what we believe Obama will let us do.
As far as superhero movies that are watchable.... The Dark Knight filled my quota for probably the rest of my life. I'd like to see more original ideas on the screen, smaller movies that respond to the world in it's current state rather than some re-heated idea by Hollywood from some white guy post-WWII. I really liked Tropic Thunder, but there was nothing near ANY sort of role for a woman, perhaps besides Tom Cruise's assistant who appeared for almost three seconds. For such a slyly intriguing film that attempts to serve Hollywood's own embarrassing tendencies back to it, it would have been nice to expose the sexism synonymous with Major Motion Pictures (unless Ben Stiller is ahead of the curve and purposefully excluded females from the film to make just that point and to see who would notice. Might be giving him too much credit, but I never would've thought he'd pull off a scathing meta-orgy of Hollywoodian ridiculosity ). I realize that some films are unavoidably male-centric, but the willingness with which we accept this is pretty startling.
Related: Barack is Harvey Dent. Obviously.
olympics: douchey excuse for hyperconsumption/NBC to jerk itself off on pro-america slobber OR a troubled world being united through athletic prowess/forced to accept china's fucked-upness as our collective capitalist creation and maybe an opportunity to rearrange our priorities?
The world is too small for the Olympics now. It's like shaking hands every so often with the people you share a house with. It's like we used to all be neighbors who got together once a month but now we're sharing in a living room and getting sick of looking at each other's faces. America and China both think the other one spends too much time in the bathroom and each thinks the other is using their expensive lotion.
It would nice if the Olympics were an opportunity to get together with your family in a respectful way and define what you are, what you're not, and how you can be a better person, but like most families, everyone just wants to show everyone else up. Conceptually, on a wide scale, the Olympics fall short of achieving any sense of global unity and understanding. We're all too happy to go to our rooms at the end of the day and knock on each other's door when we need to borrow a sweater.
And christ, the triumph of the American spirit is any advertisers wet dream. Global unity is conveniently sponsored by Visa while we celebrate universal triumph in a country that's killing its minorities and protesters? I think skeptics are justified and cynics are vindicated in this case.
...and what's the deal with china?
Contemporary chinese art at SFMOMA! Like that one artist who said: "Buddhism is a good dream, but it's just a dream." And the curator who wrote: "In modern China, young women are nothing more than tourists in their own dreams." IE: THIS (globalization, a nation that's sold it's soul for a flat screen and a spot at America's dinner table of excess and doom) is a bad idea!
Now we know that Tinanmen Square is a long national nightmare that no one can wake up from. There seems to be more class disparity than we can ever imagine: part of the country is turning their kids into the world's best divers, some of them are CEOs, and the rest are either being displaced by the government for damns and mines or making our electronics. Maybe they'll have a French Revolution-style uprising in a few years: the proletariat versus the ruling class. Either way, it's obvious they can't power the train they're fueling with myopic blend of capitalism and oppression forever.
...brian eno?
Genius. Friends with David Byrne, the one reason U2 is anything more than Modern English or Bow Wow Wow. Someone can that man's DNA. It's worth everything.
when can we get a fucking coffee machine?
GOOD GOD NOT SOON ENOUGH
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