Saturday night, after spending some time reading at Café Om, instead of coming home and almost certainly passing out, I decided to extend my working time by changing locales and getting something to eat. I've lately been hearing very good things about Fatburger--a southland fastfood burger chain I have mocked every time that most unfortunate name intruded upon my consciousness. Since it is sort of on the way home from Om, I decided to stop in and try it. And I loved it! I can't believe I've been eating craptastic In-N-Out with their sorry little flat gray patties once every few months when I could have been having a plump tasty Baby Fat (only as big as my fist and fully fulfilling) instead! Anyway, after nibbling down the Baby, I spent the next two hours at Fatburger fending off the sounds of Christina Aguilera and reading Casarino's work around Marx and Agamben and Negri. And I loved it too! I very much appreciated his reminder of how very prescient Marx and Deleuze were of our present socio-economic system. Take a gander:
"In a world ruled by [the time = money equation], we are always kept waiting because money is always already waiting for itself. It is a short leap form here to arguing--as Marx does argue--that such a process of circulation leads to a society ruled by debt and to a definition of the human as always already indebted (Grundrisse, 366-367). These pages are not far from that remarkable essay in which Deleuze uses Foucault as a springboard to dive into and articulate the passage from modern disciplinary society to a postmodern control society in which 'a man is no longer a man confined but a man in debt.' (Gilles Deleuze (Trans. Martin Joughin). "Postscript on Control Societies," in Negotiations (NY: Columbia UP, 1995): 179)."
-Cesare Casarino, "Time Matters: Marx, Negri, Agamben, and the Corporeal," Strategies 16.2(2003): 198.
People: Wake up and smell the credit cards!
I was all fired up about this, to the extent that when I talked to Michael on my walk home from Fatburger, I suggested excitedly that we give up all of our possessions to take up residence in a van, live simply and off the land (or dumpsters, given that we are urban mice), and shower at the beach.
Michael's supportive response: "I don't really think you've thought this through very well."
My convincing rejoinder: "I haven't! But Marx has! And that's good enough for me."
One night: two conversions.
The Lists
TO DO WORK:
Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon: Analyze dvd for c4 and reconfigure c4.
Somewhere in there: Write a first draft of research statement.
Done: Backwards outline of c4. Read Casarino. Ran into some difficulties reading Agamben, sort of worked through them--although I'm sure I'll have to expand and de-crypticize. Slowly writing through draft 1 section 1, c4.
TO DO LIFE: Pay down debt (currently $680.41). Procure dog. Buy suit. Read Therí's paper. Go to dmv for title and registration. Figure out car insurance. Return boxes to the container store. Assemble bathroom furniture. Sell file cabinet. Track down fridge. Figure out how to take care of bamboo floors. Return shower caddy to Bed Bath and Beyond.
DONE! did the dishes and tidied up the house. $700 later, my car has passed its smog test. attempted to assemble the shower caddy and found it had several broken pieces. Bed Bath and Beyond: any more such episodes and my love affair with you will fade quickly.
TO DO BLITZ: sarah, marilyn, giulia, irmary, mariana, dar, nv, sf, marzena, thérèse, toño, jerven, magdalena, staceymo.
TO DO CALL: hen, lauryn.
Lauryn called! Jerven called! Yay for other people making efforts to communicate!
Netflixed
Shortbus
This is a relatively explicit movie about sex. At its most profound, it reveals how psychological barriers and problems manifest themselves in sexual relationships. At its least profound...it's just laughable. The descriptions people give of experiencing orgasms: "everything was light and there was this incredible energy and there there was no more war." Is he sending this up? Partially, but there is no other definition or representation that the movie offers up in its stead. My most laugh-tastic moment is the trope of symbolizing one woman's quest to achieve an orgasm (and she's a sex therapist! how very ironical!) with having all the lights kind of buzz and threaten to go out when she's close and then a total blackout when does have the big o. It's like Carrie, only the unleashing of natural disaster is the result of pleasure rather than pain.
Restau 99
Marouch
Armenian Lebanese. 4905 Santa Monica (cross-street Edgemont). LA. 323.662.9325. lunch and dinner tues-sun. $
What a yummy dinner! What a mistake it was to order an appetizer of stuffed grape leaves! Instead of regular bread to tide you over until your main arrives, they bring you warm pita and a plate of cold pickled items: radishes, olives, hot peppers, mint and green onion. I had lamb shwarma with a yogurty-garlic sauce. The rice and grilled tomatoes and onions help make the dish. Michael had a similar set-up, only with chicken kabobs instead of lamb and pureed garlic unadulterated by yogurt. I have to say, his chicken was perfectly tender and moist, whereas a few pieces of my lamb were a little dry. The flavor though, gamey with a little sweetness of the herbs. Lovely place.
I do wonder when I'll stop tasting reruns of garlic though.
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1 comment:
Hello, just wanted to let you know that I stumbled on this blog this morning (I have Deleuze google-alerted) and on the strength of this post I read the blog to-date. I think that this here post is the best one to-date, in part because it's such straight narrative that it's accesible to an outsider. I know you're writing for people who know you and not so much for people who don't (I do that too at my personal blog) but it is always great to stitch in a straightforward scene from life.
I see I know some of the people you have blogrolled! Small world.
All the best and thanks for the read.
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