JOH 9/05

Well,
Interesting look at a city we've known for some time. It was fun to see old images in new ways while connecting them to new content. The BoA building turned out to be quite the idol to the greasy buck, amen. As someone in the group said it best "it is a cathedral to cash." And hardly cloaked, of course, we’re rich bitch! It was also interesting to hear (and later read) all of the emotional triggers that fired following the examination of the Lynx building. Is Orlando's premier mode of public transportation the darling of Eng335 or what? With only a few blocks of separation between them, the cash cathedral sits heavy and proud, daring any and all to mistake its priorities, while Lynx the Magnificent shape shifts and hustles weary travelers with promises of tropical waters and sandy beaches, complete with penetrating prison motif. Sneaky. Meet you on the corner of FUCKYOUPAYME and PARADISE. Enough of that.

Retiring to the basement, the class lecture and supporting images brought Jameson's theory to life. I cannot help but taste a bit of bleakness from J's PoMo perspective, YET, I couldn’t toss much of it out (empirically). The PoMo topic is interesting, exciting, challenging, etc., but it is also an effective agitator. Bringing the subject up on the job brought about irritation and a smidge of emotion from a coworker who replied, "It's great for art, but WHEN THEY PUSH IT INTO MY LIFE, RELIGION, AND CAST AWAY MY BOUNDRIES, I THINK IT'S BULLSHIT!"
Easy there, eeeaasy. You’re in a safe place man.

Now, I'm a looker for the good, the positive. And five years ago I would likely have been really getting after trying to bash J's perspective, calling it pessimistic. Not sure if anyone would have heard me from the high saddle I might have been on. But much of these identifications do exist, and do effect our lives in real time. It is kind of comforting to consider writing, or any expressive art for that matter, within the membrane of a PoMo culture. Unless you're asscheeks deep into committing your life to fighting dirty in an effort to reconvert all PoMobeans back to their Romantic ways. Per J, there's no threat of scandal - if others don't get it, all's still right.

People who appreciate feeling and depth will feel it, see it, and taste it in the things that they are drawn to. It seems true that a piece of good music, something that pulls your heart out of your chest thirteen or fourteen inches, shows it to you, and lets it snap back, is still a product for consumption; much like a car bomb video downloaded off of rotten.com, an organic tomato, and the six o'clock news. What wets our appetite? What are we eating?
Don't like it? Set it down.
See you.