sundries

[rm]

Good morning world. No, really, GOOD MORNING, WORLD. It is a very good morning, indeed.
 

First Inception: the Musical rehearsal last night. I was shakier vocally than I expected to be, but I also handled my shit better than I expected, and it will be fine, because I'm a hard worker, and when it comes, it comes. Also, I have no voice after eating brie, not sleeping and being on the rag (does anyone else have this, where you totally lose your range when you're menstruating?)

Also, Megan is the fuck HILARIOUS as Eames, although I confess to possibly finding all of that funnier since she's my ex-roommate AND because there's a whole long sequence in which she hits on the The Mark by doing all this "Well, helloooooo, Mr. Director" stuff, that's funny even if you aren't Megan and I, but is stupidly funny if you are.

And, most importantly, perhaps, things are afoot.
 

No, no, things are really afoot. Dogboy & Justine is totally happening. And last night, I, in thinking about something that got said in the Luhrmann masterclass and how I was actually applying that to something else, somewhere else, had an inspiration for what this project is and how it should perhaps be tonally. The other party involved totally gets my ideas, is running around with her own awesome ideas and can compose the fuck out of anything. Which is to say, er, hey, now we're naming our production company.
 

And, there was a Friends of the Text meeting that was AWESOME. In part because we are all awesome, in part because thank god Kali can keep people focused. In part because we are closing in one some great ideas for 2011. In part because, OH SHIT, everything I'm doing totally related to everything else I'm doing, and if this goes the direction I think it is, I know exactly the abstract I'm writing up for this thing and it's SO GOOD. And so about my sweet spot of fixation. And I am SO EXCITED.
 

On the other hand, I've slept way, way too much today. So the schedule of things I must do today, is perhaps different than I thought it was going to be last night. But that's okay, I needed the sleep, and the important thing is no fucking off. I've things to do! Both in terms of art and grocery shopping and Cleaning All the Things and such-like.
 

Tomorrow, Patty and I have a date!
 

Right now, it's not raining. IT'S NOT RAINING. I've decided, among other things, to go out and take a walk. Soho is calling to me. I don't know why. But I listen when called.
 

Got a birthday card from my parent, which in all its birthday card sentiment was really and truly sweet and really and truly moved me. In short, the translation could be "You're a queer artist and we actually think that's kinda awesome." Seriously, the card is that good.
 

Weirdly, I still have no plan for my birthday and still feel okay about that. Is it crazy that I think something's going to come, or that my own work ethic is plenty to keep me entertained?
 

Am I being too intense lately? I feel so jazzed, but like this all must be really tiring to read.
 

The legal debate around the suicide of Tyler Clementi. Lots of people have been talking about "well, no matter how bad it is, you don't kill yourself if there isn't an underlying problem, and you can't blame cruelty for that." Cruelty is cruelty. Abuse is abuse. Any person can be vulnerable. Any act of casual maliciousness can be fatal. Tyler Clementi killed himself because Tyler Clementi killed himself. Tyler Clementi also killed himself because he was ridiculed, harassed and had his privacy invaded because of his sexual orientation. All these things can be true at once. And are.
 

There will be a vigil in Washington Square Park in NYC on Sunday October 3rd at 9pm related to the recent suicides of gay teens. Yes, this is not a new phenomenon. Yes, it is disgusting that it is only being acknowledged now by the mainstream media like it's this year's shark attack, but it is vitally important than we keep the story alive, in hopes that that can engender change which will help keep kids alive.
 

Michigan ADA who bullied, stalked and harassed campus leader, now on leave.

For October, Mud Brick is focusing on the archaeology of death.

Comments

[eredien]

you can't blame cruelty for that

I think that, probably, most people generally don't kill themselves over one isolated incident of cruelty. But the thing that we are seeing with these incidents is that they are not isolated. Even when an individual incident is not itself part of a larger pattern of bullying directed at an individual (which is rare), it is *always* part of a larger cultural and political context, and therefore isn't really isolated. Repeated cruelty can be that underlying problem, can be that "constellation of stuff."

I was reading Paul Butler's reply, where he writes: "Clementi's bullies cruelly exploited that social prejudice [homophobia], but they did not cause it."

In these cases, I'm not sure where the line is, because the cruel exploitation of such social prejudices furthers and causes these social prejudices. If his roommate hadn't videotaped Clementi having sex and and shown it on the internet, that particular instance of "people who thought Clementi having sex was strange/disgusting/funny" wouldn't have been able to exist.

If the people who watched the video and found it strange/disgusting/funny hadn't been able to watch the video, would they have still had an opinion about Clementi's private sex life? Would they have expressed it to him? Possibly. But that opinion would not have formed from, or coalesced around, "an individual incident of watching Clementi having sex, against his expressed consent, for laughs."

If nobody exploits a prejudice, does it exist?

[tacky-tramp.livejournal.com]

Repeated cruelty can be that underlying problem, can be that "constellation of stuff."

Completely agreed.

"Clementi's bullies cruelly exploited that social prejudice [homophobia], but they did not cause it."

Cause it, no. Contribute to it, yes. His harassers bear a portion of responsibility, but blaming them entirely or even mostly lets the rest of society off the hook. Which is the LAST thing we need to do.

[eredien]

I don't think that it's a good idea to let "the rest of society off the hook," either--I agree with you that that's not the idea, that's not the idea at all. I was trying to figure out a line, if any, where I personally felt as if "contributing" might become "causing," and vice versa.