11.1.13

Thing of the Week: Banana Pancakes and Rock & Roll Cookie Jars, The Art of Cruelty

LIZ'S THING OF THE WEEK: All These Good Pictures

I can't think of one "thing" for this week, so here's just a bunch of good pictures I took over the last seven days:

1. On Friday I accidentally went to Little Ethiopia and found this bonkers cookie jar in a thriftstore. Once upon a time, LJ emailed me to tell me that my Rolling Stones spirit song is "Get Off Of My Cloud," which I wholly agree with, but in some ways I feel equally represented by "Get Off My Cookie" by the Rolling Pins:



2. Speaking of food, here's the banana cinnamon pancake I made for dinner Sunday night. I think it looks like a tiger:



3. On Saturday night I went to a party in Laurel Canyon and Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen and some bunnies were there. Good crowd!



4. And here's my cat working on her novel:




5. And here's a picture of a sad thing that happened to me on Tuesday night. BTW, my desktop image is a still from that beautiful Courtney Love animated short, which I've rewatched a few times lately and it's so energizing for me.




JEN'S THING OF THE WEEK: The Art of Cruelty


I started reading The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning by Maggie Nelson this week. I am so into it. Maggie Nelson's exploration of violence and cruelty in art/cinema/whatevs and it's implications for viewers, the artists and the world is more or less exactly what I want to be reading right now.  I've been kind of obsessed by these ideas for a while and after falling in love with David Lynch and his violent films I've been thinking about it even more. Previously I only accepted specific types of violence. I loved Yoko Ono's Cut Piece but didn't want to see Anti Christ, you know? I started opening up my mind to include space for unpleasant images. I felt weird about it, but totally interested. The other day on the subway I got to the first mention of David Lynch in the book (Blue Velvet, naturally). I got so excited I almost passed out. Am I pervert? I recently read Sontag's Regarding the Pain of Others hoping for her to resolve all of these thoughts for me. She didn't. There aren't answers here either (or ever?) but I'm majorly enjoying the meditation on it all.

Additionally this week I'm really into: Buddhism, ballet & Larry David.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous11.1.13

    I can't grab that book or that cookie jar immediately but I can make banana pancakes, so I guess that is what I will do.

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  2. 1. Liz your cat is sooooooooooooo pretty!!!!

    2. Jen "The Art of Cruelty" was my intro to Critical Theory in the Non-Academic World and I love the life I subsequently live because of it! I read "The Queer Art of Failure" by Halberstam next and it's been all queer/feminist theory all the time ever since.

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    Replies
    1. Wow, Judith Halberstam was one of my professors at UCSD. Her book sounds interesting.

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    2. This is sort of my come back to theory too! So totally way into it. The Queer Art of Failure sounds great, I am definitely going to check that out - thank you!

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    3. isn't she though? *and* a great writer!

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