Settling in UW-W-W

The pile of paper on my new desk at the University of Washington at Walla-Walla seems never ending. What with the court case, book and chapter drafts and course outlines. But caustic existential help has arrived in the form of Roger Flensing. If we all stopped eating and drinking, the world would be a much healthier place."
Now as you all know, I am myself a proud Gmail user (e-mails call outs, on-notice requests, literature requests and anything that comes to mind) and am quite piqued in my interest by their Behind the Scenes Video Contest. They are putting together a video of how a e-mail gets from user to receiver with entrants 10 seconds videos in which they make a creative take on taking the gmail icon of a red envelope and pass it to the right. Just watch the video, it'll make sense then. The responses I've seen have almost all been very good or very bad, so give it a shot. I'll be getting around to a submission sometime before the August 13th deadline.

While you're on Youtube, check out Family Friend Version of Fuck Tha Police It is a perfect representation of ethnomorphism. While on the one hand the edginess of urban culture and rap appeals to the mini-van driving suburban set who has been numbed of all feeling-particularly the pain of struggle and tangible hopelessness. But while they seek to escape this, they are still held back by the force of the system arrayed around them that makes them afraid. Both are paradoxically passed down to the youth, until finally one day someone cracks and morphs across the ethnic boundary. For now, it is the realm of the tabloids.

Our second social set is the one so artfully satirized by Travis and Jonathan of Red State Update. They are truly from the country, but have been assimilated into the coast culture of Los Angeles, where they have seemingly betrayed their background by exploiting stereotypes of that very background. This transmutation of the stereotypes once directed at oneself into success at the nexus point of acceptance is like an all-white cast of the story of rock n'roll. If this was a little contradictory, revel in it with two exemplary videos: Fightin' Joe Biden and their appearance on CNN's American Morning ("there is nothing I hate more than southern stereotypes being paraded through the mainstream media")

On another note, make sure and check out the excellent full-length documentary "This Film is Not Yet Rated". If you get the chance, also watch Indie Sex:Censored, another, and quite similar IFC documentary. Much more nuanced and introspective than TFINYR, though for this reason lacks the certain punch of said movie.

And finally, something that comes in handy, how to spot a commie: "He may be a communist"