This is for my own reference, although if you know of books relevant to the development of subcultures in America in the 20th and 21st centuries, do let me know in the comments :)


Blues Legacies and Black Feminism, Angela Y. Davis

Civilizations Beyond Earth: Extraterrestrial Life and Society; ed. Douglas A Vakoch and Albert A Harrison
The Renaissance Soul
Living Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology
How to Build a Habitable Planet
Show Sold Separately; Jonathan Gray
The Book of Five Rings
Reinventing the Sacred; Stuart Kauffman
What On Earth Evolved?; Christopher Lloyd
Feathering Custer
If Not, Winter


Blues Legacies and Black Feminism; Angela Y Davis
The Seventies; Bruce J Schulman (must request)
Age of Fracture; Daniel T Rogers (on reserve)
Framing America: A Social History of American Art
From Counterculture to Cyberculture (Carlson QA76.9.C66 T875 2006)
DIY: The Rise of Lo-Fi Culture (must ILL)
The Ethics of Authenticity (requested)
Hip: The History (extensively annotated)
Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids: American teenagers, schools, and the culture of consumption (Checked out)
The Cult of the Amateur (mehhhhhhhh)
Why Johnny Can't Dissent (essay)
Popular Culture and High Culture (Rush Rhees E169.12 .G36 1975)
All About the Beat; John McWhorter (Rush Rhees E185.615 .M3538 2008)
Homo Ludens; Huizinga (Rush Rhees CB151 .H91hE 1970)
The Feast of Fools; Harvey Cox (RR/Robbins BT28 .C87f)
This is Burning Man (must ILL)
Civil Disobedience
Leaves of Grass
Resisting Reality (Rush Rhees HM1093 .H38 2012)
Digital Nomad (must ILL)
Go; John Clellon Holmes (Rush Rhees PS3558.O3594 G6 1988)
This Is The Beat Generation
Homeward Bound; Emily Matchar (must ILL)
Cultural Creatives (must ILL)
Slouching Towards Bethlehem; Didion


An Amusing Sequence of Book Titles:
The Tentacles of Progress
An Empire for the Masses
The Moon is Dead!
Give Us Our Money!

Yo, if anyone is actually curious about just how broad of a net I am casting in my initial research for my thesis-like object, there is a pretty good selection here.

I wrote a song. About a man. Whom I'm not even involved with. What is my brain?*



*I understand that this is relatively normal but it feels kind of weird and creepy to me. Anyway.

The vocals-only prelim recording can be found here.

Balance In The Gap
( Lyrics under the cutCollapse )

Catt Kingsgrave has just self-published A Thing of Rags and Patches, available on Amazon and Kindle soon, and I was given a copy to review.

This is an anthology of some of her poems and short stories. It hangs together nicely, all one body of work, though individual pieces occupy far points in storyspace. Many of the stories have their endings silently left as an exercise for the reader, leaving me with the question "... and then what happened?" Well, that's up to me to decide. It could be frustrating, but when the stories are approached thoughtfully, it works. Some of the poetry is beautiful; some of it is angry. Fit to Judge vibrates with energy, demanding to be sung, nay, belted with all the strength of feeling in it.

Some of the works offer tantalizing glimpses of bodies of myth previously unrevealed, or offer an intriguing reimagining of the role of Hell more sensible than convention. A few stand out to me as exquisite jewels, precisely the sort of thing I treasure: Late Fees brought glee to this child of libraries and stories; Cartomancy brought breathless yearning for the story that surely must surround it. Zero Hour, 8:15 took me right out of myself, during the buildup, immersing me in the Tucson desert.

It would be remiss of me to pass over Am Buachaillie Ban and The Benediction of Saint Anguish, both stories of women taking up weapons against an intolerable situation, honest and brutal, but ultimately hopeful and fierce. Their pairing at the beginning of the book tells you: Kingsgrave is not pulling punches or hiding within her text.

The text itself is lovely, skillful working of more than one dialect of English, and at times as poetic as any myth could hope to be, as when the small Queen in The Moon in her House found what delight it was "to shave ice with her tongue, and taste volcanoes deep within," a beautiful evocation of, perhaps, Jupiter's moon Titan; a delicate blend of old myths with new science, and all the better for the mix.

I do not think this book is for everyone, but if the things I have described appeal, then I encourage you to buy it, and open it, insofar as you can, with a willingness to give each piece the focus and attention it deserves. This is a book that rewards thoughtfulness.

An attempt at summarizing Chomsky's lecture in Ann Arbor on July 11 2013 for the benefit of those who were unable to attend, and those who did not take as copious of notes as I. All material in "quotation marks" is an actual quote from Dr Chomsky; all material in 'single quotes' is not. Material in [brackets] is my commentary.
( 2300 words, L&GCollapse )

I was chatting with a friend last night about struggling with having concrete goals, which is symptomatic of and probably contributory to my general lack of ambition.

So here are two concrete goals, posted publicly for accountability purposes:
1. Be able to qualify 3-ball Cascade while riding my bicycle, by the end of the summer
2. Be able to do one full pull-up within 30 days of acquiring a pull-up bar, which I intend to do next paycheck

So for a good two-three weeks there, I was heavily focused inward, on fandom and writing and such.

And now my attention is more outwardly directed, into doing things outside the house and reading nonfiction and drinking beer with attractive men.

These things just sort of happen, I guess.

I started thinking more about my project/thesis for next year, which is exciting and happy-making. Although I couldn't tell you what I'm trying to show if I tried, at the moment. :P What I can say is that it involves American culture, with a particular focus on subcultural movements, ideas, and ideologies; and that depending what I find, I might get a book's worth of work and ideas out of it. Which would be very exciting.

Because I realized that I can't keep track of them in my head any more.
For the purposes of this list, a writing project is "current" if it's either not posted or 'incomplete' on AO3.

Ob Scena
Fandom: Star Trek TOS
Summary: Episode-based ficlets.
Status: Awaiting more watching of TOS. Also there's one sitting on my computer unposted.
Next Steps: Post "Balance of Terror" ficlet. Watch more TOS.

Counterparts
Fandom: Star Trek TOS, Norse Mythology
Summary: Crackfic, Loki Does Starfleet. Porn.
Status: Currently mid-chapter. Loki & Sulu hook up.
Next Steps: Finish & post this chapter. Make a plot outline.

The Book of the Orc
Fandom: Tolkien's Middle Earth
Summary: The Orcs have a story too; what is it? Part of my Eastern Parts of Arda series.
Status: Waiting for more bits of history to write.
Next Steps: Revisit my history notes.

Men Awoke With the Sun
Fandom: Tolkien's Middle Earth
Summary: Trying to write a sympathetic, canon-compliant history for the Easterlings.
Status: Waiting on more bits of history to write.
Next Steps: Revisit my history notes.

You Shall Live to See These Days Renewed
Fandom: Tolkien's Middle Earth
Summary: Faramir & Eowyn are King Aragorn's emissaries to the Easterlings, to sue for peace. Also Eowyn is totally badass and still a fighter at heart, and Faramir is okay with this.
Status: A chapter is sitting on my computer.
Next Steps: Make a plot outline. Revisit new chapter.

Hob Gadling Has Adventures (working title)
Fandom: Sandman
Summary: Hob Gadling is on a colony mission in spaaaaaace in the fuuuutuuuure.
Status: Nine episodes are sketched out.
Next Steps: Finish sketching the plot. Make a more detailed outline. Send out to alpha readers.

Mystery Monster-of-the-week (very working title)
Fandom: Star Trek TOS
Summary: The Enterprise encounters a problem. Kirk and McCoy have an explosive argument over whether or not Kirk will allow McCoy to treat his patient (it might be too dangerous).
Status: The first scene is written. The plot outline is in progress.
Next Steps: Finish sketching the plot.

Hob Gadling meets Palpatine in a bar (not a title)
Fandom: Sandman, Star Wars
Summary: Hob Gadling walks into a bar and encounters Palpatine. This is one of those tricky magic bars where you have to tell a story in order to leave. Stories and grumpiness ensue.
Status: I've gotten to the beginning of Palpatine's story.
Next Steps: Find an appropriate story for P to tell (I'm thinking Darth Bane).

From Charity to Enterprise
Fandom: Star Trek... AOS?
Summary: A young person is dependent on the charity of others throughout their youth and eventually makes it onto the Enterprise. I don't even know. I saw this book title and suddenly was like "I have to write that story" and then I was sad because (as you can see) I do not need more plot bunnies.
Status: Popped into my head during work today. That there summary is all that exists of it.
Next Steps: Figure out if I actually want to write this thing.
This entry was originally posted on Dreamwidth. Comment here or there as you prefer.

Comment on this post and I will choose six interests from your profile. You will then explain what they mean/why you are interested in them. Post this along with your answers in your own journal so that others can play along.

And... I will also:

1. Tell you why I friended you.
2. Associate you with something. A fandom, a song, a colour, a piece of fruit. SOMETHING.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Associate you with a character/pairing.
5. Give you a "this or that."
6. Tell you a random song I associate with you.
7. Tell you my favorite user pic(s) of yours.

( My answers to kyliesvillainCollapse )