Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Utah Phillips sez: "Just get busy"
Ahh… I see that the ol’ Wobbly is still quite the rabble-rouser..
Captcha = act
Posted by RT on from The Buyou City 01/29 at 10:15 AMGood morning MZ , Expendables…
Utah Phillips has sage words indeed.
It can be quite a trap to get stuck into some blogs and find yourself feeling weighed down by all the bad news in the world.
It is important though to recognize and deconstruct the reasons for all the bad news, even if it does start to get freaky when you’re reminded of how long the tentacles of the existing machinery have gotten.Sounds like Hell’s Kitchen was the place to be last night...any pictures with which to indulge the absentees?
Back later. Crazy warm pouring rain in January - not the winter that should be upon us.
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 01/29 at 10:39 AMGood morning, RT and Empress. I’m glad (and not surprised) you both enjoyed Utah’s words. May I recommend the source, Altar Magazine (link in post)? It’s a feminist mag/site for which I’m proud to be a regular contributor.
As for party photos, I don’t know. James was rather busy being a host (and cooking up a vegan storm).
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/29 at 10:42 AMMickey, once again I read something on your page that makes my day (Utah Phillips). With any luck (although it is up to me and my willingness to take it to heart) it will make my week, month.. or even longer.
captcha= action
Posted by Peter (the other) on from California 01/29 at 12:05 PMWell, Peter, you just returned the favor. Reading this line made my day: “once again I read something on your page that makes my day.”
Note: Peter maintains a blog here: http://loosepoodle.blogspot.com
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/29 at 01:40 PMMZ—your source: I scanned the site, and got a good indication of what falls under their brand of feminism. This again goes back to our dialog of what constitutes pornography, yet I sense that you still don’t fully understand my position on the topic, and may be provoking a comradely response from me in light of this.
Obviously, “porn” means different things to many people, as we’ve discussed before Mickey. But from my point of view, it is the large, dominant, multi-million dollar industry which overwhelmingly objectifies women and is sold to men. An industry. A capitalist industry. A huge capitalist industry like many others, which includes concepts such as profits, bosses, authority, coercion, class, and so on.
But it goes without comment that some industries (in practice) have major defects, whether economic, moral, or whatever. For example, someone close to me works at a white collar job for a major oil company that just announced record profits. More, this person’s income has significantly grown in the meantime, and has been awarded all sorts of bonuses, etc. Well, I’m sure some of us Expendables might think “hmm… oil company + record profits + gas prices + Iraq + bombing + sanctions + death + destruction...” and would connect the dots in relation to this person. Perhaps this person close to me is a “little Eichman” of sorts, for being another cog in the machine. I sort of think that way myself, albeit in a loose sense of the term “little Eichman”. Similarly, why wouldn’t one think that way about female performing sexual acts for a big adult video production company, who’s target audience is predominantly men, in a male-dominated, patriarchal society such as the U.S.? Isn’t she just another cog in the machine that perpetuates gender biases, sexism and such?
So, I don’t necessarily think its the industry itself per se, but rather how the industry conducts itself in practice (i.e., under capitalism, and within other existing social institutions). Oil is still needed to power the world—but does that justify the horrible things done to achieve that power, and considering who holds the power over that power (from a moral point of view)? No. Similarly for porn, I think.
Which leads me to this: I believe that use of the term pornography is a step back, and that the term “feminist pornography” is an oxymoron. To most folks, pornography has too many negative connotations: obscenity, filth, bitch and whore. Hustler Magazine, Larry Flynt, big money, racial slurs, and gender stereotypes. On and on. However, truly non-explotative sex in media deserves another name altogether, don’t you think? I personally believe Altar and other so-called feminist and neo-feminist groups/publications are doing a great disservice to the LEFTIST feminist movement for not making the simple distinction by defining it as something else, if they do indeed share that vision.
Recommended reading: http://tinyurl.com/b4svh
Anyway, happy Sunday all, and warm wishes from The Buyou City.
Posted by RT on from The Buyou City 01/29 at 02:01 PMWow, RT, that was not my intention at all. Altar is a cultural-political-feminist mag and site and if it ran an article or two about porn, I wasn’t at all referring to that. I like the woman who runs Altar. I like her DIY style. My only purpose in suggesting that people take a look was in support of a friend trying to create her own media...not a blanket endorsement of everything she publishes.
Having said that, I like your commentary above and agree with you: “Pornography” is such a loaded term that it may be beyond rehabiliation. Like “patriotism.”
Thanks, RT.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/29 at 02:08 PMMZ: I guess I just had to get that off my chest, but I wasn’t directing anything towards you specifically. Just my frustration with how people like Goldberg (see Altar’s site) approach the topic.
It would be great though if more people on the left would also begin to analyze “pornography” not as sex, but rather as 1) an extremely profitable capitalist industry, and 2) as a distinct form of media (and a predominantly corporate one at that).
Viewed in these ways, the discussion of “pornography” changes considerably.
Posted by RT on from The Buyou City 01/29 at 03:00 PMWell good afternoon Mickey and Expendables All-- yes, sure was a great time last night and I do think that Utah would have fit right in! I apologize to all for a later than usual posting my Mickey today-- I kept the guy out til past 1a.m. last night! Amazing, and sorry, no photos. Wish I’d gotten to it but yeah, was overwhelmed by the cooking and the hosting. Who knew I had it in me? Hurray! Maybe in another month or two…
And ask Mickey, has anyone ever seen so much vegan mac n’ cheese in one dish at once?
Posted by James on from Hell's Kithcen 01/29 at 03:07 PMHello to all & a silly joke:
President George W. Bush was scheduled to visit the Methodist Church outside Washington as part of his campaign to get his programs through Congress. Bush’s advance man made a visit to the Bishop, and said to him, “We’ve been getting a lot of bad publicity among Methodists because of Bush’s position on stem cell research and the like. We’d gladly make a contribution to the church of $100,000 if during your sermon you’d say the President is a saint.”
The Bishop thinks it over for a few moments and finally says, “The Church is in desperate need of funds and I will agree to do it.”
Bush shows up and as the sermon progresses the Bishop begins his homily: “George Bush is a petty, self-absorbed hypocrite and a nitwit. He is a liar, a cheat, and a low-intelligence weasel. He has lied about his military record and had the gall to put himself in a jet plane landing on a carrier posing before a banner stating ‘Mission Accomplished.’ He invaded a country for oil and money, and is using it to lie to the American people. He is the worst example of a Methodist I’ve ever personally known.
But compared to Dick Cheney and the rest of his cabinet, George Bush is a saint.”Posted by Chris Wood on from Manchester, England 01/29 at 04:20 PMHello again, Expendables. Yeah, James cooked up enough food to feed a vegan army.
Also, check out what the Empress has posted and please spread the word: http://urlsnip.com/611413
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/29 at 07:01 PMSorry to ignore your excellent post topics Mr. Z but I just wanted to tell the Expendable Nation that if they wanted to help the RMJ email campaign in a quick and easy fashion (ie. Not having to write a post on their own spaces) they could pop up a brief link to the postings the Empress and I have put up around the ‘internets’. They can be found here:
http://amsam.org/2006/01/justice-in-vermont-with-your-help.html
http://nmazca.com/blog/2006/01/justice-in-vermont-with-your-help.htm
http://dianne.free.fr/index.php/justice-in-vermont-with-your-help
and on our respective blogs of course.
(sorry I didn’t T-url these things but after all the posting and letter writing my eye balls are suffering extreme screen burn – if you could do it that would be super fine.)Posted by Youngfox on from here for now 01/29 at 07:10 PMHa you beat me to it!
Why do I bother?Posted by Youngfox on from behind 01/29 at 07:14 PMWow, a vegan army, what an awesome concept. Still overwhelmed from all the cleaning up to do, respond to other stuff more later, but thanks again for coming, man, hope you can make the next one whenever!
Captcha says ‘girl’. I like the sound of that…
Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 01/29 at 07:44 PMI hope an Expendable army of emails reaches those officials in the post that MZ was kind enough to link to.
And...in case those few of you who are kind enough to stop in at my blog every so often might notice that I had a sudden bout of eloquence, that’s because Youngfox pretty much wrote the post for me!
We’re spreading the word as far and wide as possible...I hope each of you can too.Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 01/29 at 08:09 PMAnd by the way all, I stopped in a Coliseum Books on 42nd St., yeah partly to put off cleaning up here, and they were sold out of ALL of William Blum’s books. Great news, and they said they’d order more.
Posted by James on from 01/29 at 09:13 PMGood night, all. Hope to see more of you back in action here in the coming week.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/29 at 10:10 PMWise words from Utah Phillips, Mickey! Thanks for another great post and more great graphics. Is there even a Koufax award for a blog with the best graphics? And I wish I could have been at James’ party in ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ - LOVE that name.
It is 6:55 pm in Daylesford, and today was quite pleasant: about 76F and windy, so the walk into the centre of Daylesford and back home was not too strenuous. There is a reasonably steep hill which has to be climbed on the way from the center to the street where we live.And good night/afternoon to all you expendables! Good to know one belongs to ‘Mickey’s family’.
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 01/30 at 02:55 AMAnd Chris, that is not a silly joke but a GREAT joke! One needs nothing so much as a laugh in these dark times ..
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 01/30 at 03:17 AMThanks, Helga.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/30 at 05:22 AM
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