New Blog Posting Imminent

I. I Keep Promising to Be Better at Life
Other than starting the occasional fight on Current Events and lurking in the Poly Group, I haven't really been paying much attention to Suicide Girls. Which is funny to me, a lot of people I know who aren't on here tend to think of the site as no longer fashionable at best, or offensively something (sexist/anti-feminist/supportive of the owner's weird crypto-fascist politics) at worst.

I keep meaning to take a more active role in the community and stay in touch with friends--not just, here, actually, but friends in general--that I haven't been in touch with of late. But then I think about it further and realize that I've been on this site for nearly a decade (christ). And in that decade, the friendships I've made have moved off the site to vary degrees. I was once engaged to a woman I met through this site (that didn't end well, I'd rather not talk about it), I was in the wedding of friends I met on this site. Just this weekend I had coffee plans with one of my friends from here and earlier in the week blew off gun-range plans with another. I trade music and jokes with friends from here on Facebook, and occasionally hit them up for academic/career advice. I have one notable friend on this site that I only ever really talk to when I read a comic book I know they'd be into, or come across a news story that I want their opinion on and after every exchange kick myself for always forgetting to ask how the hell they're doing and just have a more natural conversation with them.

So, I dunno, maybe I'm more active in this weird, strange little community than I give myself credit for. Maybe I don't use this platform any more because those interactions mostly take place in other places. Maybe "friendship" and "community" in the internet era are rapidly evolving and changing shape and we're all slowly figuring...

New Blog Posting Imminent

I. I Keep Promising to Be Better at Life
Other than starting the occasional fight on Current Events and lurking in the Poly Group, I haven't really been paying much attention to Suicide Girls. Which is funny to me, a lot of people I know who aren't on here tend to think of the site as no longer fashionable at best, or offensively something (sexist/anti-feminist/supportive of the owner's weird crypto-fascist politics) at worst.

I keep meaning to take a more active role in the community and stay in touch with friends--not just, here, actually, but friends in general--that I haven't been in touch with of late. But then I think about it further and realize that I've been on this site for nearly a decade (christ). And in that decade, the friendships I've made have moved off the site to vary degrees. I was once engaged to a woman I met through this site (that didn't end well, I'd rather not talk about it), I was in the wedding of friends I met on this site. Just this weekend I had coffee plans with one of my friends from here and earlier in the week blew off gun-range plans with another. I trade music and jokes with friends from here on Facebook, and occasionally hit them up for academic/career advice. I have one notable friend on this site that I only ever really talk to when I read a comic book I know they'd be into, or come across a news story that I want their opinion on and after every exchange kick myself for always forgetting to ask how the hell they're doing and just have a more natural conversation with them.

So, I dunno, maybe I'm more active in this weird, strange little community than I give myself credit for. Maybe I don't use this platform any more because those interactions mostly take place in other places. Maybe "friendship" and "community" in the internet era are rapidly evolving and changing shape and we're all slowly figuring out what that means and how we play with and off of that. Maybe one day I'll have the time to do more than just be on Facebook with the friends from here that I know there, or I'll find more use for this site other than lurking and venting frustrations at people on CE. Maybe not. Who knows.

But if you're on here and you're my "friend", and we haven't talked, and you're not on Facebook, or you don't have my mobile number, or we haven't had coffee, or tweeted at each other or whatever the fuck else, y'know, say "hey". I always wonder how y'all or doing.

II. How I'm Doing
I could tell you about my new and exciting relationship. I could tell you about applying to Columbia University and the New School. I could talk about going to see Lucero this week. But instead of all that, here is my recent update to my dating profile, verbatim as it appears under the heading of "Self-Summary". Because absurdity is kinda my bag:

So, this Monday morning, I'm standing in my kitchen doing last night's dishes. This typical of a Monday morning, since I find handwashing dishes to be a humbling, zen-like activity, and it neatly fills the time it takes for the water for my morning coffee to boil. Beside the sink--at a safe remove from splashed water--is my phone, cycling through the 10+ gigs of music I store on it at random. Kim Fowley's "The Trip" comes on, from the soundtrack to RocknRolla, and I suddenly find myself thinking about what a fascinating character Fowley is.

A picture of Fowley forms in my head while I wash the dirty coffee mugs that match the glass french press. But it isn't Fowley. It's actually the actor that played Fowley in The Runaways movie. For a few seconds I'm completely lost. His face is incredibly familiar to me, but I can't quite put the name to it, and all I can picture is the actor as Fowley, which is not-quite-Fowley. Then the name comes to me, Michael Shannon.

Michael Shannon has an incredibly distinct face. And then my brain automatically cycles through all the various roles I know Michael Shannon from, which mostly consist of his bit part in Jesus' Son and his Fed-turned-lamast on Boardwalk Empire. I did not care for Boardwalk Empire, truth told, not even a little bit. Well, maybe a little bit, but a very little bit. And that little bit was probably entirely due to Michael Shannon's character and his portrayal of him.

And then, for one brief shining second, I wanted Hollywood to be an entity, with a body, and I wanted to hug it. Because creating a movie about the Runaways, even a very bad movie, is incredible. Creating a screen version of such a strange and bizarre character as Kim Fowley is incredible. Giving a career to Michael Shannon is incredible. Allowing Michael Shannon to play Kim Fowley is just utterly fantastic.

Then Amos Millburn's "Down the Road a Piece" came on and I found myself thinking about chicken-fried-bacon-grease and what could possibly be better than it, other than rock n' roll.

((Which probably gives you more material to make inferences about me from than any silly summary I would write with the same actual intent. Full disclosure: I'm in a polyamorous relationship with a wonderful woman who I love very much. If monogamy is your bag, I'm probably not the dating partner for you.))

III. Footnotes
Listening: Everything by Lucero, Lou Reed's "Street Hassle" (the song, not the album) over and over and over again, Kendrick Lamar's "Good Kidd, M.A.D.D. City", and random smatterings of Holly Golightly.

Reading: Mostly ancient Greek philosophy for school. God(s) help me, it kinda makes me want to be a philosopher when I grow up, but then I remember I quit drinking. Immortality by Stephen Cave is a very fascinating and well-written pop-philosophy/general interest kinda read, though. I also powered through most of the last two volumes of Marvel's The Punisher, for interested parties, Rick Redemer's run was disappointing, Greg Rucka's should be taught in whatever school's people might go to if they want to learn how to write comic books well. On semester break I read, in short order, Evan Wright's Generation Kill which was amazing and heart-wrenching; George V. Higgin's Coogan's Trade, which was stylistically incredible; Col. Beckwith's Delta Force about the creation of Delta and the failure of Operation Eagle Claw, it was... interesting.

Watching: Season four of Archer is on. That's about it for my teevee watching time. What little time I have to kill these days (which are full of life and run away like wild horses!), I've been playing various Call of Duty games, which is no fun for my roommate, since he then gets to listen to my endless gripes about their narrative failures, jingoistic and reductionist plots, and how we're all going to hell because fourteen year olds only know how to be good at virtually killing people and know no other insult than "fag".

That is all. Hopefully this update was informative and amusing and finds you well. Take care, SG.