1/16/14

Coming Thoughts

O God. SO MANY THINGS COMING UP! I'm doing shows tomorrow night, Saturday night and Sunday night. And then a bunch the next week too. YOU CAN SEE ALL MY JANUARY SHOWS ON MY E-BLAST. Which you can subscribe to too.

The first one, the special super-soon event, is TOMORROW FRIDAY 1/17/14. B0DYH1GH will play a special $FREE set of new songs at Strange Loop Gallery, 27 Orchard St. Please come!

So much to do and think about.

Dear heart Jamie Sterns's list of Things That Need to Die in 2014 was so inspiring. I guess I've had this kicking around in the back of my head for a little while. Yesterday I thought of a list of some controversial opinions of my own.

LIST OF THINGS I HAVE UNPOPULAR OPINIONS ABOUT AND CAN’T REALLY SPEAK CRITICALLY OF ONLINE OR IN REAL LIFE:

1. JESSICA LANGE

It used to be that you couldn't say anything bad about Madonna to gay people or they'd go nuts. Then it became about Lady G**a, you couldn't say anything bad about her or they'd go nuts. Now it's about Jessica Langue. Few of these 'mos gave half a fuck before American Horror Story. Let's just say that I'm more team First Wife. First Wives Club. Okay? Dig yr own hole.

2. SODASTREAM

First of all: I don't have anything against carbonation in general, nor seltzer in particular. I think whoopee cushions are uniformly hilarious and I like that aspect of the Sodastream. What I don't like or have unpopular opinions about is the Boycott of Israel and how Sodastream is but one thing to boycott, but also people don't even know about or observe the boycott, but also it's an important can of worms, I feel like, to open, sometimes.

3. GAY MARRIAGE (still!)

If you want to get married that's great and that's great for you and I probably am happy for you. But being able to get married doesn't make it much safer for queer or trans people in this or any country. The theory that it leads to some amorphous acceptance is dubious. I don't think that what's best for the upper class goose is necessarily best for the rest of the gander.

4. GAY ARTISTS THAT DON’T WANT TO BE CALLED GAY ARTISTS

I get that people don't want their work to be limited. I get that people don't want to experience homophobia. I get that people want to be able to "not worry" about being queer. You know what? Too bad. You have to worry about it. I have basically no sympathy for people who struggle to come out. For many of us, the ability to "pass", to ever have a conversation about our artwork or our lives without mentioning our FLAMING QUEERNESS, was precluded from the jump. If you don't want people to talk about your artwork in the context of homosexuality-- don't be gay. Don't be an out gay. Don't make work that's in any way informed by or about queerness, okay?

5. BEING ANTI-INTELLECTUAL

As in, I think I might be anti-intellectual? More and more frequently, I find myself feeling that there's a basic assumption of secondary education or some knowledge of philosophy or something, when I'm at a punk show or art opening. There's a thing of self-understood intellectuals conflating their "intelligence" with their social class. It's icky! The unsaid sentiment is that at least we're not the proletariat. At least we're not Midwestern. At least we're not overweight. At least we're not uneducated. I think probably there are more fantastic people who are uneducated, overweight, Midwestern, who have MUCH more interesting and important things to say, than there are stuffy New Yorker "intellectuals." Any conversation, movement, aesthetic or vibe that doesn't explicitly include working class or uneducated or poor people (or, fuck it, I indentify this way-- stupid people), is bunk, to me, these days.

6. MONOTHEISM

I'm not saying your God is bullshit. I'm saying all Gods are bullshit. I agree with Beyoncé that God is Real, y'know, to an extent.



But only in the most abstract sense. There is no benevolent great white father. There is also no malevolent, cruelly opaque evil figurehead who is "testing" or "torturing" us. I don't normally encounter people who talk about their personal relationship with God, but I do encounter people who seem to assume that the world shares their viewpoint: that everything will work out. That wanting it bad enough means you get what you want. That you get what you deserve, etc. That there is someone there looking out for you. That when you need it, help and grace are always there for you. Wake up, kids, your breakfast is getting cold. 


Okay, end rant.

I know someone who knows someone who is in a girl scout troop. This means that I have a conenction to buy fucking GIRL SCOUT COOKIES.



Okay so I love the Girl Scouts. Their cookies are notoriously hard to get. Maybe it just seems that way to me? Here in NYC I never see them for sale anywhere, you have to order them from a troop member. I often make the joke that out where I live, given my lifestyle, it would be easier for me to buy illegal drugs than girl scout cookies. No one likes that joke. I'm always thrilled to get Girl Scout Cookies, even though they're not part of my new 2014 Spring Crash Diet. I also just like saying Girl Scout Cookies. That's a good DJ name. I feel like I am a girl scout cookie, in a way too. I give it out once a year, with advance notice, etc. Also this song:

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