Action Team

HELLO

I LOVE STAR TREK SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!

ALALLALALALALALA

Obama: Not That Gay

He had that bigot reverend talk at his inauguration, but his first act worked out in congress was to mitigate gender discrimination. All part of the big strategy. The dismal record of the law in securing equality and/or liberty for marginalized people is probably not going to significantly change over this presidency, but I’m much more interested in the potential Obama has to change the discourse. I think one of the most important functions of law is the manner in which it frames a discourse as concrete. The first act could be a real springboard. I can imagine, given the right media-worthy moments, Obama historicizing gay discrimination as another unjustified form of violence, and shaming much of the socially conservative crew into disavowing all the moral justifications for placing homos lower on the human hierarchy, or, to put it simply, making it understood just how extreme this form of discrimination, this hybrid of racism and sexism, is.

Will he get stuck in the muck of codifying identity in law? I don’t know, I just feel like… getting a president to pass some laws that help out a specific group… it’s probably silly to ask much more of a president. The president is in theory that moral signal others would assimilate too, but in order to be elected you’d have to assimilate to the electorate first.

Maybe this is enough blathering to finally put me to sleep!

Cops, Racism… Who Knew?

It’s nice to see that they’re learning from the past though; my room mates saw some BART cops at Bayfair station arresting a (black) person, then saying, “oh wait, it’s not this guy, it’s him!” then uncuffing him and chasing down another (black) person, then finally letting him go and chasing down another (black) person who looked about 15 years old. Thank god the police are always there to protect us… Jesus Christ.

Music

Here are some of the things from this and other years I’ve listened to and liked lately.

American Analog Set v. Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Hard 2 Find |  Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” mashed up with American Analog Set’s “Hard to Find.” Both the artists ability to pluck at those emo heartstrings are nicely orchestrated. This is a pretty good mashup. American Analog Set liked it so much they contacted the artist, aggro1, and sent her a bunch of instrumentals and acapellas so she could make it a better mashup. This is old.

Flying Lotus - Los Angeles |  This one came out this year. The artist is from “the valley,” so I guess the album is his tribute to the city. The album is an assemblage of crazy computer sounds centered around hip hop and downtempo; This week I’ll see how it pairs up with cruising around under that wonderfully smoggy sunset.

Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours | Best party album of the year? Well, I have lived in San Francisco a pretty long time. It’s kind of like what Depeche Mode would be doing right now if they were still good.

Hurray!

Kthxgivingbye

I looove the holidays…

Prop 8

If California were really a body, whether political or otherwise, would it not almost certainly be a queer one? If there is such a thing as an epistemology of the closet, is not california facing some of the deepest reaches of that epistemology? Our state has come about, or come out, as it were, and now we are dealing with the rise and falls of acceptance occuring at our mass mediated dinner table. With our family values crumbling all around us, I guess the homos are still the easy scapegoat. Not only is this moment a near perfect one for analyzing the legislation of discomfort and it’s linkages to larger projects of domination, it is also one to analyze the generally queer times in which we live. As we meander through another fuzzy rendition of, “shouldn’t we be treated the same?”, I hope for politics that allow us to ask not only about the breeders but also how queers might unwittingly collude with heteronormativity, so we can change the question to, “do we really want to be like them?” this seems to be one of the only ways to escape our coming out pains.