Ear Plugs

Before practice yesterday, I stopped by target and bought a tooth brush, a four pack of Red Bull, and a 12 pack of ear plugs (with convenient travel case!).

I was excited to use my new ear plugs and consequently NOT lose all of my hearing... but it just so happens, that when you put ear plugs in, you lose all of your hearing.

I took them out half way through the first song... but I really should have just played louder to hear myself.

My rock and roll life style continues, with only a little bit of identity crisis.

On Tuesday, Rocksteady had a band meeting, where they talked about their feelings, and plans for the future. From what I was able to pick up on yesterday, their plans for the future are pretty big, as they become more and more a significant act in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Ska scene. There will be travel. There will be beer festivals. ... and it seems like I will be a part of it.

I hope.

It's still hard to tell.

There will be a follow up blog one of these days where I discuss the feminist implications of playing in a punk band.

I'll get good, and I'll learn how to tear up solos, and they will have no reason not to need me.

~~~

I'm hanging out with Axel and Petie again. House sitting over Christmas is easy, because I show up here, and never leave. This time I have school, and social obligations, so I've been run, run, running.

Yesterday for example, I slept through my first class (didn't do the reading :( ), ate lunch, and biked the 5 miles to Uptown. The dogs did their thing, and then I rode the 5 miles back. THEN, at 5pm, I rode to Lake Street for practice, practiced, and then rode from there back here. I haven't ridden my bike in weeks, and I am surprised I am not more sore than I am.

Because this weekend will contain so much physical activity-which is something my life lacks- I'm going to try to use it to kick off a spring health regimen. ... also because there is food here... a whole bowl of fruit, and a fridge full of eggs and cheese... and ice cream. So, besides the ice cream, I can be replenishing my bicycle weary body with good, substantial nutrements.

Then, by spring time for real, when I'll be playing shows in sleeveless shirts, I'll be rocking what Beth called, "Michelle Obama arms." Yes. I must also cover them in tattoos.

Maybe.

I've been thinking tattoos again, with mixed feelings. I never actually have to see my Hare if I don't want to, so I wonder what it would be like to have something on my arm, where I'd see it all the time.

What do you think though? Out line of a wall eye, on my right arm, positioned just so the pale white of forearm's underside makes the pale white of the fish's belly. His face would be right by my wrist, so even in sleeves, an angry wall eye face could peek through.

Then again, last week, without knowing of any tattoo plans, my dad said, "If anyone ever asks if you can draw a wall eye, just say no." Maybe that's a sign.

Another idea is an outline of a trumpet on the back of my left arm. This would be more balanced with the Hare, and could be symbolic of my entering the trumpet world... but I also don't want it to be pretentious. Who am I to call myself a trumpet player?

Anyway, this blog got long. I think lots of it is me not wanting to enter the cold, outside world. I need to be at school by nine for improv, which I didn't practice for. PRIORITIES!

How do you support your Rock and Roll Life Style?

Ok... well. I guess it has been a while.

There are just so many things going on that I can never decide what to blog about... so I never do.

For example:

History Major's Senior Seminar on the year 1968 with Jacqui deVries that is the only thing standing between me and my History Degree... and the work for which I should be doing RIGHT NOW!!! I've already been slacking, and this class is important. Soon, I will start researching for my THIRTY PAGE PAPER. I plan on doing it on something relating to youth organizing, perhaps even in the Twin Cities (So I can use the History Center's archives!) and then of course adding a twist of sexual politics and gender roles. Woot!

An amazing winter break, spent at home in Ogilvie, dog sitting near Cedar Lake, and many nights in Anderson bonding with my rockin' Environmental House.

Speaking of Rocking... I've also been playing a band.
The Brass Messenger rehearsals went well, but I had not yet grown the balls necessary to rip up a solo at that point, and since giving their music back, they haven't said anything. Maybe, if nothing else, I'll be on their sub list, which is better than nothing.

Because of the Brass Messengers and my fan-dom, I got connected with a trombone player from another local band, which is also pretty great called Rocksteady Breakfast. I've rehearsed with them twice, and after practicing almost every day for two weeks, I spontaneously joined in at a show on Friday. "Playing shows is like drugs," Francis said, and after playing a couple songs that I actually knew, to a crowd of screaming fans... I'm hooked.

So yeah.
I'm a rock star.

Now I need to figure out how to keep rocking, AND get homework done.

Oscar Wilde + Ms. Swenson

Even though it wasn't really Ms. Swenson who fertilized my love for Oscar Wilde, in fact, it was Mr. Borris, and only because we read "The Importance of Being Ernest", and even then only because Uncyclopedia quotes him all the time, Ms. Swenson began churning my feminist intellectual brain into the overworking queer power house it is today.

I post because I came across this website:

http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/fales/exhibits/wilde/0chamele.htm

I've only read the first part so far, but now with all of my (unexpected) women's studies training, this really gets me off, and astonishes me how the Wilde connection can be traced back to my "Youth." ... "Adolescence" if you will... assuming I've passed that.

What did people do before Word Processors?

Granted, I love me some click clack '0 type-writer, but gees, "Cut and Paste."

Seriously.

Sat down at approximately one o'clock, hope of finishing my Gender and Globalization paper dwindling upon the realization I really hadn't started... but then I found that I DID kind of start, and it wasn't all useless!

It has just been a matter of cutting and pasting sources into the right order to match the order of my thesis, and Crockett inspired road map.

I wish all papers were this easy to write... Oh... They are!

Haha! So close.

The Honor's Suite is quiet. I love how zoned in we all are. I am really happy to be part of the Honor's community. I don't care about the bad rap it gets some times. We're here because we like, and are good at producing quality work and sharing ideas. In consequence, we get to sit at polished cedar tables, or poofy leather couches, and write about high theory to our hearts' content.

... talk about ivory tower elitism...

Oh well. I recognize the privilege awarded to me as a student of a private, liberal arts institution. It would be worse not to be grateful, and use my powers for evil.

Stay away from comfy couches

When already sleepy, one should most definitely NOT sit anywhere near the couches in the Honor's Suite.

I made the mistake of sitting ON one, and konked out for an hour and a half. Now I am sprawled even more casually, and downing a Coca Cola with a determined glint in my eye.

I wish this one of those many nights where I could have said, "Oh, I must need my rest..."go back to my room, and go to bed before Ten... but nope. This is the real deal, friends. This is the Sunday before finals week. Even though I worked at a reasonable clip all of last week, I now have a finite number of days to finish everything. Still not panicked yet... surprisingly.

Oh, and why am I so tired?
Perhaps it's because on Friday I celebrated Magdalen's 21st at the Kitty Kat Klub, and then followed that up with continual celebrations yesterday, both with Magdalen and with my Floor house.

I love my floor house. One of these days I'll do a blog just about them. I should move away from this couch. Ah!

Feminism.

Third Wave.

Occupy Wall Street.

One Week Out/ 149 days till the end

This time next week I shall be basking in hard earned freedom.

Right now, I sit in the Honor's Suite, bracing for action. I've been working hard all week, and it feels good. I worked so hard on Monday, Tuesday felt like Thursday.

... I put Pandora's "Cake Radio" on too soon, and it started blocking my brain flow.

I've been listening to this station every day. I made it on Monday by combining Cake, the Cure and Big D and the Kids Table with the hope of having as much trumpet and excitement as possible. Ska is really good for paper writing energy.

Last night, I presented on my Occupation Paper. I still have the last part, "Feminism" to write. So far, it's really just been a break down of the movement itself, which discourages me a bit, because this is supposed to be a "Feminist Lens." I've got it though, I'll write a solid introductory paragraph, with a thesis that will make it all make sense. Now, I get to do a little more research, and digging for information on the Third Wave of Feminism ( <3 <3 <3 ). This paper is so theory rich, and I love it.

The other day, I came across bell hooks in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's entry on "Topics in Feminism." I've known about bell hooks, but not that much, and I think we might be soul sisters. She writes:

Unlike many feminist comrades, I believe women and men must share a common understanding — a basic knowledge of what feminism is — if it is ever to be a powerful mass-based political movement. In Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, I suggest that defining feminism broadly as “a movement to end sexism and sexist oppression” would enable us to have a common political goal…Sharing a common goal does not imply that women and men will not have radically divergent perspectives on how that goal might be reached. (hooks 1989, 23)

See? :)

Now I am going to listen to ska and write until I can't handle not playing my trumpet any longer, then I'll go and practice for my jury... and probably sign up for a time.

Then I'll write some more, eat some food, go to the student government meeting, and write a little bit longer.

One of many Rants

It seems appropriate that I find myself blogging more now that I am actually reading more blogs and discovering their potential.

I'm torn though, because I want to be an educated, vocal, revolutionary, feminist, blogger, and enter the conversations around the world...

But I also want to be a good Homemade blogger, and talk about how the spontaneous party in my room last Saturday ended with us all wrestling, leaving blood on the wall, and rug burn on my face.

I am loving my LIFE, I just can't write papers...

It was this very week last year that started my "downfall" (Depending on how you look at it). December 2, 2010: COLLEGE ROCKS. December 4, 2010: Woke up cuddled between Mary and Paul. Went to class. Slept till noon. Did nothing else.

Then I hit puberty.

Feminism and Women's Studies is great and terrible for this problem... because it addresses this problem exactly! The problem being, how do we live HUMAN lives in a HUMAN world that also expects us to behave like machines.

Grrrrr Industrial Revolution.

How do I be female bodied, and queerly cis-sexual, in a world where gender and sex screws with everything... significantly my trains of thought, where post-modern sexual expression, gender roles, career paths, and life choices are all mashed into one "Complicated" glob of personal/political discourse, that no one really understands?

Hey, y'all should follow my Tumblr: princelilykrakensnake.
It's fun.