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cchmissions · 6 years

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Israel Day Nine: Tuesday 1/08/19

Waking up Tuesday morning was difficult, for many reasons; knowing we wouldn’t be returning to the hotel; the stress of packing, unpacking, and repacking your suitcase hoping to get everything to fit once again; trying to mentally prepare ourselves for our 36 hour day and all the travels that the day held; and most grim, knowing our time in Israel was running out. Yet we made the best of our situation and left the hotel with high hopes of what our last day might have in store for us. Our hotel was located in the Northeastern part of Israel and our airport, the final destination of the day, was located near the middle of the country on the western side along the coast of the Mediterranean.

Because we did have such a long day of driving, our tour guide planned a stop along the way at Caesarea. In 22 BC, King Herod had a dream that he wanted to build the largest port on the Mediterranean. Twelve years later, his dream came true. Caesarea, named after Augustus Caesar, used to be a very powerful city because of it’s location along the shore and the numerous entertainment options it provided. Before modern-day cruises became popular, ships would only sail shore-to-shore and dock every night so the fisherman or passengers could sleep on land. Caesarea offered its’ inhabitants and guests with plenty of leisure activities: chariot racing, gladiator games, and live theater at the large amphitheater that would have held 6,000 people. Unfortunately, a lot of this materialistic city was destroyed by conquest or overtaken by the waves of the Mediterranean. The amphitheater though is still functioning and used weekly for concerts. Most sites we stopped at had a gift shop, Caesarea being no exception. This shop was special though in that it had Bamba, our new favorite Israeli snack. More than half the group bought a bag to eat on the trip home.

Our next stop was Tel Aviv, or the New York of Israel. It is Israel’s second largest city and most populous city, oddly enough it is also one of the newest cities in Israel. Founded in 1909, Tel Aviv became a place where Jewish refugees would flood throughout the 20th century. Today it is a major tourist attraction, known for its’ nightlife, shopping, and fashion industry. It was very fitting that we spent the majority of our time in Tel Aviv at the Caramel Market, the largest market in Tel Aviv. Two city streets, parallel to each other, were full of vendors selling handmade crafts, produce, off-brand clothing, spices, sweets, electronics, wall décor, and so much more. The narrow streets were packed with other market goers all trying to get a look at the goods being offered; it really did feel like New York.

While at Caesarea, our guide Efrat received an exciting phone call saying that we would be able to tour Independence Hall, the building where Israel declared it was a nation, while in Tel Aviv. The Hall was supposed to be closed for visitors for the next few years, so our visit was truly an unexpected treat. Beginning as a house, then an art museum, and now a historical site the Independence Hall has had about as many changes as Israel has. During our tour, we sat where guests sat in 1948 during the meeting that would eventually declare Israel a nation. There is nothing particularly special about the house, which makes it a rather odd place to have such an important meeting. But because Israel was still not at peace, the founders needed somewhere safe where they could meet. The then art museum seemed like the perfect disguise, and the shelter walls and high windows of the basement didn’t hurt either.

After being educated about the creation of Israel as a nation, we got on the bus and took a short ride to Joffa/Joppa. This ancient port has many biblical stories attached to it: Solomon transported cedars here to build the First Temple (2 Chronicles 2:5-6), Jonah the prophet fled from God (Jonah 1:3), and where Peter brought Tabitha back to life and stayed with Simon the Tanner (Acts 9:36-43). Our first stop was an outlook of the shoreline and St. Peter’s church, built to commemorate the visit and miracles of Peter while in Joffa. Efrat shared that most churches face east, in Israel however, because sunlight and Jesus will eventually come from the east. St. Peter’s church is no exception, but because it faces east towards the Mediterranean Sea, it is meant to represent that the church is open to all people even those across the sea—even Gentiles. We then walked to the believed site of Simon the Tanner’s home, and Lance retold the story of Peter healing Tabitha Dorcus. Back on the bus it was time to go to the Closing Dinner.

The entire trip, Passages had provided five-star accommodations, but the Closing Dinner was the most luxurious of all. The conference hall where we ate was two stories tall, with one wall being glass windows from the ceiling to the floor. Before being served, our group along with Efrat and Michael, our body guard, met in a separate lounge to hold a debrief of the trip. Everyone shared their favorite part of the trip and something they learned/want to take back with them. It was interesting hearing the 38 different perspectives of the trip, and how some people’s highlights were others deleted scenes. It was very bittersweet, sitting all together one last time, knowing we wouldn’t ever be able to recreate this trip.

Since my return, many people have asked me “Would you want to go back?”. And the easy answer is yes, yes I would. But honestly, I feel that it would be a disservice if I went back outside of Passages. Having started only three years ago, it was amazing how developed, professional, and pristine Passages and the entire trip was. They provided us with so much extra information, viewpoints, and insights that made the trip all the more meaningful. The immense amount of detail and effort that is poured into our schedule really showcases Passages desire for the students to learn and be more than just mindless tourists. I also couldn’t imagine coming back and not having Efrat as my personal guide. Her knowledge of the bible, land, Jewish culture, and Israeli history was absolutely inspiring. She said that she started giving tours after college just trying to make some money before something better came along, 29 years later she has mastered the art of tour-giving and could probably do it in her sleep. I would say without any doubts, that every single person on our bus was positively affected by her presence and inspired to learn more about our own faith because of her.

For our last supper, pun 100% intended, we were served our choice of veal, chicken, or fish. A significant amount of sides and pita was also consumed. While dessert was being served, we acknowledged each of the 8 buses, the faculty, tour guides, and body guards that were represented in the room. Once we were done eating, we had to rush to the airport to have enough time to make it through customs before our flight departed. Many hugs were given to Efrat and Michael, before we finally had to go our separate ways. Both of our flights went smoothly without any issues. The one thing on most people’s minds after landing was when they could get fast food. It seemed that a week without a hamburger or pizza was more difficult than expected. Honestly though, does anything say America more than a McDonalds?

The partially destroyed amphitheater in Caesarea Phillippi, and view of Mediterranean

The view of the amphitheater from the stage; it used to be 3 stories tall

Remains of Caesarea Phillippi, most washed away by the sea

The bus with all of our Bamba

Carmel Market in Tel Aviv

The original photo of Ben Gurion, the leader of Israel during both World Wars, in Independence Hall

Staircase down to the port

Jaffa port

Luxurious location of our last meal in Israel

The last meal in Israel (chicken served at the fancy dinner)

First meal post-Israel (please laugh at the comparison between this and the last meal in Israel)

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ipodclassic160gb · 7 years

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2017 Year End Music List

Hello and welcome to another installment of my annual album/song of the year lists. It was a rough year! Thank you for reading I love you so much.

20. Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up

I never liked Fleet Foxes. I always thought they were the product of an NPR think tank (just like Wilco or Neko Case). But I gave this album a shot and it really did it for me. The music is just so lush! My only issue with it is that you kind of have to give this album your undivided attention and listen to soak in all of the details. You can also file this one under “albums that sound like their cover art”

19. Colin Stetson - All This I Do For Glory

Every release from Colin Stetson is remarkable in it’s virtuosity and sheer innovation. No other artist on this planet can do what he does with just a saxophone. However, since Vol 2: Judges his work has been a lot of the same. It might just be me, but I felt like this release changed up his formula just enough to make this some of his best music yet.

18. Blanck Mass - World Eater

I think any album by a member of Fuck Buttons has a certain loudness requirement it has to meet to be considered as part of their body of work. While I don’t think they’ll ever match the pulsing wall of buzzsaw distortion that was Street Horrrsing, this album takes me to that same musical realm.

17. Jlin - Black Origami

THIS ALBUM IS BATSHIT FUCKING CRAZY. It sounds like the drumline from the movie Drumline and a West African drum circle playing together but they’re both are performing on computer instruments. These songs absolutely refuse to be background music. There were moments on here that left me with my jaw dropped, just staring at the speakers because I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

16. Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory

Big Fish Theory is a great example of an album where the risks pay off and Vince Staples feels like the only rapper capable of putting it together. The production is pretty out there and not only does Staples make it work, he makes himself at home in it. Even with producers like SOPHIE (if you had told me even a year ago that I would hear Kendrick Lamar rap over a SOPHIE beat I would have called you crazy), this album is West Coast to it’s core.

15. (Sandy) Alex G - Rocket

This album is honestly kind of a mixed bag, but the good songs are great and led me to listen to listen to other a lot of older Alex G. So I figured it was worth including in this list. To me, his music falls into the space somewhere between This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About and Either/Or.

14. Mastodon - Emperor of Sand

Since no one else is saying I’ll go ahead and say it: Mastodon is STILL COOL and this is by far their best album since Crack the Skye

13. Ross from Friends - You’ll Understand/Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes

Lo-fi house gets a bad rep because it’s bandcamp music made by enigmatic producers with funny names and is basically just an offshoot of vaporwave. That being said, lo-fi house is at the very least more functional than straight up vaporwave music and honestly…what’s wrong with funny names?

12. Sheer Mag - Need to Feel Your Love

I love this band. They make such PERFECT and AUTHENTIC sounding 70′s rock. Do you remember The Darkness??? I liked The Darkness when I was A Teen but you could always tell that they were copying from someone else’s playbook. With Sheer Mag, I feel like you could put their music on a playlist right next to a Thin Lizzy song and no one would think anything of it.

11. Thundercat - Drunk

To me, this is Thundercat finally hitting his stride. The shorter songs suit him well and keep the album from getting stale. A lot of artists this year tried to capture the essence what it’s like to live in such buck wild times and a lot of them fell flat . This album captures that essence without even trying.

10. Visible Cloaks - Reassemblage

You know how you go back to look at the music you listened to the most over the past year and it’s like...what is this album I listened to like 100 times apparently? And it’s that album you would always play while riding public transit to help you relax and zone out? That’s what this album is and it’s really good

9. Power Trip - Nightmare Logic

Easily my favorite metal album in years. Not a moment of filler. This is music to punch people in the face to.

8. Kelela - Take Me Apart

After seeing Kelela play the side stages at virtually every festival I’ve been to in the last four years I am really happy to see her blowing up from this release. The central theme of this album of yourself apart and putting yourself back together after losing someone hit EXCRUCIATINGLY close to home for me this year.

7. Charli XCX - Pop 2

Turning her back on the Iggy Azalea paycheck money to work with a set of producers who make music that sounds like you’ve wound up on the WRONG part of the internet solidifies Charli XCX as one of the realest artists working in pop music today.

6. Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.

This album is the last nail in the coffin of every rapper that is not Kendrick Lamar. It solidifies him as the peerless, undisputed heavyweight champion of rap music (honestly…the second half of “DNA” alone accomplishes this). It’s been such a gift to watch Kendrick make his way to the top.The only thing that worries me is that now that he’s at the top where can he go from here?

5. Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked at Me

One of the most gut-wrenchingly sad albums I have ever heard. What sets this apart from other albums about death is the specificity. It is an unadorned look into what someone goes through when someone they love dies. I think I’ve been able to make through the album start to finish a total of two times

4. Fever Ray - Plunge

What makes this album great is that it carries the same political themes brought forth on The Knife’s last album into a more refined and structured space without it sounding any less bizarre. No other lyric better summarizes the current global political climate than “THIS COUNTRY MAKES IT HARD TO FUCK”

3. St. Vincent - MASSEDUCTION

I wouldn’t say that it’s St. Vincent’s best work by any means. However, there’s a handful of songs on here that just fucking GET to me. A lot of people seem to view MASSEDUCTION as this fun and sexy album but to me it’s just overwhelmingly sad. Yes there are some fun latex BDSM moments here, but they exist in the context of an album about loss and addiction. I don’t think I’ve ever cried at a concert as hard as I did when I heard this album performed live.

2. JAY-Z - 4:44

This is one of the best albums of Jay-Z’s entire career. The real hero of this album, however, is No I.D.’s production. The "doing everything as big as possible” sound of Jay-Z’s other recent work only seemed to make him sound older. On this album, over slower more soulful beats, he sounds more in his element than he has in years. Jay-Z if you are reading this I do NOT forgive you

1. SZA - Ctrl

If I could give AOTY specifically to the line “why you bother me when you know you don’t want me” I would. I connected so much with the loneliness and the uncertainty and the self doubt that lives at the heart of so much of this music. This is one of those albums that I will carry with me forever because it will remind me of a specific part of my life that was bad. And I’ll go back to listen to it later and I’ll be brought back to that time but I’ll miss it for some reason. Does this happen to anyone else? There’s a lot of music that takes me back to specific BAD moments in my life and makes me miss those moments. Hopefully that is normal.

Songs of the Year:

Lil Uzi Vert - XO TOUR Llif3

(Sandy) Alex G - Bobby

Carly Rae Jepsen - Cut To The Feeling

Anamanaguchi - Miku (NES Version)

The War On Drugs - Thinking Of A Place

The National - The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness

Gorillaz - Hallelujah Money (ft. Benjamin Clementine)

Cardi B - Bodak Yellow

Japanese Breakfast - Road Head

King Krule - Dum Surfer

Lorde - Green Light

Kelly Lee Owens - More Than a Woman (Aaliyah Cover)

Radiohead - I Promise

Payboi Carti - Magnolia

Lizzo - Truth Hurts

Thundercat - Show You The Way (ft. Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald

N.E.R.D. - Lemon (ft. Rihanna)

yaeji - raingurl

Arca - Piel

Calvin Harris - Slide (ft. Frank Ocean and Migos)

(2017 Overall Playlist)

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fitnesswomenshealth-blog · 6 years

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Shoebox Britain: how shrinking homes are affecting our health and happiness

New Post has been published on https://cialiscom.org/shoebox-britain-how-shrinking-homes-are-affecting-our-health-and-happiness.html

Shoebox Britain: how shrinking homes are affecting our health and happiness

Jenny had run out of choices when she first walked into her basement studio flat last spring. The charity worker had been kicked out of her shared home in Bristol when her landlord sold it. She was on benefits, having been signed off sick with post-traumatic stress and anxiety after giving evidence as a victim of crime.

While being put up on a friend’s sofa, Jenny, who is 35 but does not want to use her real name for fear of jeopardising her tenancy, scoured online sites for rooms within her budget. Housing benefit claimants in the city can generally receive up to £300 a month for shared accommodation. “Rooms here were going for anywhere from £400, but even if I had that money, I could be rejected because I’m on benefits,” Jenny says.

Desperate and confined to private rented accommodation (Bristol has more than 11,000 families on the waiting list for social housing), Jenny learned that she just about qualified for the higher allowance for a one-bedroom flat, as a single occupant aged 35 or over. This pushed her budget above £500 a month. After finding her landlord on a Facebook community group, Jenny had a home. The payoff would be space. “What I didn’t know is how isolated and trapped it would make me feel,” she says.

Jenny pays £475 a month, excluding bills, for one of the smallest of nine flats carved out of a Victorian terraced house on a busy road. One of them is not more than a glorified shed crammed into the garden. She doesn’t know the floor area, but planning documents show that her room, which includes a double bed, kitchen sink, hob, oven, washing machine and a clothes rail, covers 15 sq metres. The tiny, windowless bathroom adds 3 sq m. Her whole home is barely bigger than the average living room and would fit 14 times on to a tennis court.

“When I come home I feel this sense of doom,” Jenny says. “I can’t have the window open because I’m on a noisy, polluted road, and I can’t have the blinds open because there’s a bus stop right there. I’ve had people weeing on my doorstep, doing crack outside my front door.” There are practical challenges. Jenny eats on her bed, which, like her clothes and everything else she owns, smells of whatever she cooks. Without proper storage, anything out of place can make the flat feel chaotic. The hum of the fridge keeps her awake at night.

“I think that even if someone didn’t suffer from anxiety or depression, living in this flat would affect them mentally,” she says, wondering how she might start to recover in a house like this. “You feel it – oh my God, the air is so … heavy.”

Illustration: Michael Kirkham

Britain’s housing crisis is pushing more of us into shoebox homes. Houses are shrinking, too. In 2014, the average new-build in the UK was 76 sq m, the smallest in Europe (Danish homes were almost double the size, research by the University of Cambridge showed). The average living room in a house built in the 1970s, meanwhile, was 25 sq m, compared to 17 today, according to LABC Warranty, which provides warranties for new-builds.

But it is the slicing and dicing of houses – and, increasingly, office buildings – that is redefining the whole idea of home, recalling a dark era of tenements and rookeries. For some residents, it is a money-saving endurance test of the sort many of us consider a rite of passage. For others, it can feel like the walls are closing in and there is no way out. “I’m lucky I have a roof over my head but that’s about as far as it goes,” Jenny says.

There have been attempts for more than a century to promote space standards for homes. In 1912, Raymond Unwin, the architect and planner best known for the garden city movement, wrote: Nothing Gained by Overcrowding!, a pamphlet on the subject. In the same year, the Local Government Board recommended that no house should be smaller than 79.4 sq m. Flats appeared in space guidelines in a 1961 report of the Parker Morris committee. One-person, single-storey flats should be at least 29.7 sq m, it said, with 2.6 sq m of storage – double the size of Jenny’s home.

But standards and ideals can get blurred in a vicious economic cycle. Ministers relax planning rules to enable more building and development. Developers and landlords find profitable loopholes in those changes. Local authorities, desperate for alternatives to their own dwindling housing stock, direct residents to those landlords, fuelling further exploitation at a time when councils also lack resources for planning and building control. Residents, often faced with homelessness, endure the cramped results, until society notices and someone writes another report.

“My concern is that people are becoming inured to something that they shouldn’t have to put up with,” says Julia Park, the head of housing research at architectural firm Levitt Bernstein. She has written a history of space standards and is surprised by how little we consider the effects of domestic confinement. “When you’re living in smaller and smaller flats, you reach a point where it makes sense to take out the walls because one big room feels nicer, but I think that implies a lot of compromise we’re not examining,” she says. “Some of these flats pose threats to physical health, but, in small spaces, it’s going to be mental health that is most affected.”

Elsewhere in Bristol, Chris, 24, shares a tiny flat with his girlfriend Merlie. The couple have a separate bedroom, but there is barely space to move between the bed and walls. The kitchen and living area is equally small, and there is no chance of spending any time apart when they are both at home. Chris also suffers from anxiety, while Merlie has an eating disorder.

“When I’m feeling stressed and anxious in the outside world, it’s important for me to have a base where I feel comfortable,” says Chris, who has just quit a job handling complaints for a train company. “If I come home to an uncomfortable sofa that has stuff on it so I have to walk around it, and navigate wires everywhere, it makes me more irritable and it’s harder to decompress.” Kitchen clutter can affect Merlie’s eating disorder, because order creates a space where eating feels right for her. “She can end up avoiding eating or not eating at all for hours because, if it doesn’t feel right, there will be a reaction,” Chris says.

Illustration: Michael Kirkham

Park, who advises local authorities, laments the way sleeping, cooking and washing are increasingly viewed as the only functions of a dwelling in a housing market where a living room is becoming a luxury. She is especially worried about the types of homes that have emerged in the gaps in policy. This summer, she noticed a seven-floor former office block in Croydon, in south London that had been divided into flats. Planning records showed that each of the six upper floors in the building had been converted into 10 studios, including single flats of just 13 sq m.

By current standards, these flats are barely a third of the recommended size. Park was instrumental in drawing up the “nationally described space standard”, a nationwide metric implemented by the government in 2015. It recommends 37 sq m for a one-person, one-bedroom flat; a two-person, one-bedroom flat should be 50 sq m.

Park was surprised that the government had agreed to the recommendations, given its austerity policies. “The compromise was that it is optional,” she adds, estimating that fewer than half of councils have adopted it. Even when they do, it only applies to new buildings or developments that go through the planning system, but not to a range of “permitted developments”. So, for a relatively small investment, the owner of an office building, for example, can convert it into self-contained flats with only “prior notification”.

Ben Clifford led a team that visited more than 500 converted office buildings for a report published last May by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. “We were shocked by how many of these flats were of a very poor quality,” says Clifford, a senior lecturer in spatial planning and government at University College London’s Bartlett school of planning. In one, Clifford called the fire brigade after spotting walls dividing flats made only of plywood. “We spoke to one resident who was in a tiny one-bed flat with two children and no balconies or open space,” he says. “Another woman, in an 80s office building, said it just wasn’t very nice to live in a flat with big tinted windows that don’t open.”

In the so-called “lockdown” model, meanwhile, rogue landlords are converting family homes into tiny studio flats specifically to attract tenants aged 35 or over who, like Jenny, claim the higher housing allowance for a self-contained dwelling. By including a token shared facility, such as a tiny kitchen – or by ignoring rules altogether – these landlords also bypass planning permission by treating such developments as flat-shares (another permitted development). The rental income from six cheaply built studios is multiples of that for a three-bed flat share in the same house – and it is the taxpayer who lines the landlord’s pockets. “It’s basically the warehousing of homelessness,” says Jon Knowles, a computer analyst and campaigner who has recorded hundreds of such developments.

Park accepts that homes smaller than 37 sq m can be a useful, short-term base for people in need, as part of the response to the housing crisis; and high-quality “micro” apartments are increasingly marketed as aspirational. Park’s own son, Jack, this summer moved into a flat about the same size as Jenny’s. But, in his case, downsizing was a choice. The primary school teacher, who is 28, was paying £600 a month for a small room in a flat-share in south-east London. He wanted to work less as a supply teacher to free up time for his art and a possible masters degree and now pays £350 for a 13-15 sq m studio in Liverpool. His metal sink has a draining board that incorporates two electric hobs. There is no oven.

“I’m not that fussy about where I live and if I wanted to work a bit less and save money, it was only possible in a place like this,” Jack says. “But if it was forced on me, I might resent all sorts of things about it.” He says he could not tolerate the space if he had a partner.

Chris, who pays £625 a month for his flat in an old house, says enforced proximity makes arguments tough. “If you’re feeling distant from one another it’s blown out of proportion hugely because you’re in the same room because you have to be,” he says. A social life is challenging, too; the couple have a small blow-up mattress for guests, but the only bathroom is accessed through the bedroom, around the bed. Hosting dinners is out of the question.

For Jenny, this also fuels a sense of isolation. “I can’t even have someone for a cup of tea,” she says. “When people do come over I feel shame because of how small it is, and everything feels dirty because as soon as people come in they are instantly in my bedroom with their shoes.”

Few housing campaigners have much hope that conditions might soon improve for the occupants of our shrinking homes. Clifford says there is a minor backlash against abuses of the permitted development rules, and several local authorities are moving against them. “We have to be much tougher on landlords and on standards,” Park says. “There are going to be compromises because we are desperately short of housing, but we cannot give people a free pass.”

For Jenny, the future – near and far – feels uncertain. “I know I’ll never be able to afford to buy anywhere, or even to rent this place without help with benefits at the moment,” she says. “But I don’t want to be on benefits.” She has started doing volunteer work with a learning disabilities charity while she considers applying for jobs. She goes to the library and takes regular walks. “Or I’ll go to a friend’s place and instantly, when I’m out of the house or in a larger space, I’ll feel a hundred times better,” she adds. “But then I’ll have to go home.”

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chrismaverickdotcom · 6 years

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Mavademics Recap: My Crazy Dumb Month of Conferences and Podcasts

I kind of wonder if anyone notices when I don’t update my blog. Most of my readers see it through the Facebook feed version, but I’ve been so busy that I haven’t even had a chance to go see a movie to review in the last couple weeks. If you follow me on twitter (@chrismaverick) or see the Facebook syncs from there, you likely know why. For some reason I got it in my head that it would be a good idea to do three academic conferences in a row. Like literally three weekends in a row. I’m glad I did it. I had a good time doing all three of them. But this was not a good idea… so very very not… I’m getting too old for this shit!!! But I wanted to have a recap of it on my blog as well, maybe for other people, but also just so I have a record for myself (if only to remind myself never to do it again!) So I figured I’d write this up really quickly now that I’m done.

From the top…

The first conference was the Pop Culture Association/American Culture Association(PCA/ACA) national conference, where I presented in the Comics and Comic Studies area. I go to this one pretty much every year, because it is more or less everything that is perfect about academia for me… an opportunity to apply complex literary theory to funny books. This one was in Indianapolis, so I drove there. My talk this year was titled “In Defense of a Thundering Dumbass: Marvel’s Self-Conscious Critique of White Masculinity in Iron Fist and The Defenders” and was about what you can probably guess it was about. Basically, I looked at the the Netflix version of Iron Fist, in comparison to the 1970s original comic version and used Edward Said’s Orientalism theories in conjunction with some Judith Butler gender performativity concepts to argue that the character of Iron Fist can only exist, in any medium — film or comics — as an exploration of the place of whiteness and masculinity in an transforming multicultural landscape and a response to white male anxieties of the specific era the story is taking place in. See… I told you… complex literary theory applied to funny books. Anyway, the short of it was that the TV show Iron Fist may not be the greatest thing ever, but it doesn’t really “suck” so much as it is an exploration of whiteness and masculinity in the “woke” era… and that’s sort of important but not for everyone. Along the way, I also made jokes about Tarzan, Manimal, and Kung-Fu Panda… I swear it all made sense at the time.

At the same conference… in fact, just a couple hours after I gave the Iron Fist talk, I was delighted to win the “Lent Award for Excellence in Graduate Comics Studies” for my paper that I did at the same conference last year, “Oracle of the Invisible: Sexual Assault and Rape in The Killing Joke” which was a super depressing deconstruction of how rape and sexual violence work in that book to build both Joker and Batman’s relationship in a hypermasculine economy based on violence and sex where Barbara (and Jim Gordon) effectively serve as necessary, but passive currency. That one was super technical and… well, obviously dark. So dark that I kind of didn’t think anyone actually liked it, so I was really surprised to win the award for it. But happy… for a brief shining moment it was almost like this whole pop culture academic criticism thing isn’t a complete and utter waste of time. 😁 And hey, I apparently get a trophy or plaque or something mailed to me, which is awesome. Because, after all, with my win of the Lent, I am now one step closer to completing my run at the fabled LEGOT, a feat that I don’t think anyone else has ever accomplished and yet, I’m on my way. I just need a Tony, Oscar, Grammy and Emmy and I’m done. Yeah, yeah, yeah… Fuck you! I’m closer than Philip Michael Thomas!

The next weekend I flew out to the Southern Sociological Society(SSS)‘s annual conference. This was a first for me. The conference was held in New Orleans this year, with a sub-theme of “Racial Theory, Analysis, and Politics in Trump America.” The same weekend, New Orleans also happened to be hosting Wrestlemania. So it seemed obvious to a few of us in the Professional Wrestling Studies Association (yes, that’s actually a thing, dammit!) that there should be a panel or two devoted to an analysis of Trump’s connection to the wrestling world and how it relates to the current sociopolitical landscape. Because, of course we did. I ended up giving a paper I called “Heel to the Chief: Donald Trump and the New World Order of Politics” which was a look at the rhetoric and semiotics of Trump speeches in comparison to professional wrestling promos and an analysis of how and why this was able to use hypermasculine performance to appeal to the working class American voter… by comparing him to other great wrestling promo givers: Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, The Undertaker, The Ultimate Warrior and Abraham Lincoln (yes, he was a wrestler… LOOK IT UP!). This seemed to go over pretty well, and after it was over I got interviewed by a New Orleans paper about my talk, research and my past as a professional wrestler. This does not get me any closer to my LEGOT. But I’m still closer than Philip Michael Thomas… and I’m pretty sure I’ve now been interviewed more recently.

Finally, this last weekend, I went the Northeast Modern Language Association(NeMLA… and yes I know how unfortunate an acronym that is)’s annual conference, which at the very least was here in Pittsburgh, so I didn’t have to travel. There I presented a paper that I called “Captain Falcon vs. Captain Hydra: Marvel’s Struggles to Address Multiculturalism and Identity Politics in Trump’s America.” This was about what I call “identity commodification” or the packaging of cultural identity, be it race, gender, sexuality, religion, politics or other aspects into a product that can be marketed in a world that privileges identity over character or narrative. That is, in the current identity politic driven, SJW wokeness vs alt-right conservatism, acronymerific (LGBTQIA+POCMRAKKK — and I swear to HOVA there’s got to be at least one person in this world who that accurately describes), Trumpian world, identity has become paramount over anything else, even in our funny books. This is maybe unsurprising; superheroes are sort of emblematic of ideology. That’s sort of the point. And since corporations are profit driven, even if the identity focused audience is ideology focused, capitalism essentially demands that there be a way to commodify that in order to monetize a product. So yay! We’re all part of the machine. Sadly, I did not win an award or get interviewed or anything after NeMLA… probably for the best… it’ll keep me from getting a big(ger) head. And Philip Michael Thomas didn’t even get to present, so I’m still WAY ahead there.

Running around the country doing these things totally fucked up my sleep schedule and I’ve literally been exhausted to the point that I sometimes forget where I am for the last week or so. And all during this, I also started and recorded the first three episodes of my new podcast, the first two of which are now up and available for listening. It’s called VoxPopcast and basically, it’s a combination of all of these academic thingamajigs I do PLUS the kinds of stuff I do on my blogs and the kinds of conversations one might have in a comic book store or bar. Pop culture academia and bullshitting all mixed together, with a floating roundtable of participants in the discussion from all walks of life (academic and non). So please, if you like the kind of stuff I do, follow the blog (http://voxpopcast.com), subscribe to the twitter (@voxpopcast) or the Facebook group, subscribe to it on on iTunes or Sticher or whatever it is you use, and leave us comments, suggest topics, volunteer to be a guest and write us podcast reviews and whatever it is that 1) gives us something to talk about 2) makes me famous so that I can earn a living and somehow get considered for the other four awards that will complete my LEGOT before that bitch Philip Michael Thomas passes me.

Samantha Jordan, Stephanie Siler, Kash Mira, Cenate Pruitt, Meron Langsner, Joe Darowski, Brandon Link Copp-Millward liked this post

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Mavademics Recap: My Crazy Dumb Month of Conferences and Podcasts was originally published on ChrisMaverick dotcom

#comics studies #EGOT #LEGOT #Lent Award #pcaaca #philip michael thomas #podcast #PWSA #sss #superheroes #Trump #voxpopcast #wrestling #wrestling studies

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