music for your fists
So slack, I know.
He’s got a rod beneath his coat
gonna ram right down your throat
make you grovel on the floor
spit, bump, and scream and beg for more
First, I direct you to the Cuir Underground archives, to peruse Gayle Rubin’s playlist from fisting parties at the Catacombs club in San Francisco from 1975-81.
(Edit: do they not look like the biggest leather queens you ever saw?)
Second, I direct you to this page, where, if you like, you can read the newest version of my thesis chapter plan. Which is my work, not to reproduced anywhere else. Please do comment, though, if you like.
Sounds interesting - I don’t have much intelligent to say, as I’m way over my head, but I’m loving the idea of reading as it develops.
Aslo, I think chapter 3, dot point 2 uses the term both when I think you mean all.
Comment by datakid — September 29, 2006 @ 5:15 am
wow,
the skatt brothers are amazing! i downloaded that song ‘life at the outpost’… it’s cause a massive shift in my song choice for tex royale
‘give your love to a cowboy man,
he’s gonna love you hard as he can can!’
HOT
Comment by dan — September 29, 2006 @ 8:27 am
Hey Az,
What an amazing thesis plan! I’ll need to give it a few more reads to fully grasp it (and the fact i’m a bit tired and hung-over ain’t helpin), but I’m sure that your thesis will make a significant - and provocative - contribution to the (interrelated) fields of transgender and sexuality studies. You really do (as u put it) “look through the wrong” - or a fresher - “end of the telescope” and I can’t wait to read yr findings!
A few pointers. Firstly, are you mentioning why you’ve interviewed transfolk for the project (as opposed to simply drawn from second hand material, i.e. trans bios?) How can these interviews enhance/enrich your findings? (I’m sure you’ll mention this, it’s just me getting back into tutor mode on a lonely and hungover saturday night).
Also, you make reference at the end towards “the self-reflexivity of the people I interviewed about the effects of the (Thai) market and their role in it”. I would, however, be very careful and specific about what you mean by ’self-reflexive’. This is a term that is often used quite unproblematically in, say, literary studies, but how does a ‘lived subject’ (for want of a better word) be ’self-reflexive’?
Otherwise, congrats - and again, I can’t wait to read the finished product!
Comment by Jazzawithaj — September 30, 2006 @ 11:53 am
Hey, Az - me again!
In risk of tooting my own horn on someone else’s blog, would I be able to make mention of a benefit gig I am organising for a documentary I am currently working on? This is a gig (and a doco)that would, I feel, be of interest both to yourself and many Melbourne-based readers of “Going Somewhere”?
The doco is entitled ‘Re-Igniting Community’, and is being produced by new Melbourne-based company Yowie Creations. The doco focuses on ‘The Torch Project’, an arts organisation that has worked extensively with indigenous and ‘at risk’ youth.
As the PR and Fundraising Consultant for the doco, I - Jay D. Thompson, for those of you who do not know me (and I’m guessing that will be most of you) - have organised a benefit gig for post-production expenses. The gig will be held on the evening of Saturday 2 December at “303″ (a bar/performance space located at 303 High St, Northcote - right next to the Northcote Social Club), from 7pm onwards. Door charges are $6 for students/concession holders and $8 for others.
The night will be a terrific opportunity to showcase the work of a range of local Melbourne acts, as well as raise funds for a project that aims to help break down prevailing negative stereotypes of indigenous peoples, the working-class and (very broadly) ‘young people’.
For updates on this gig, do consult my myspace page, which is www.myspace.com/jazzawithaj
(i’m not sure, Az, if ur able to make a link to this page - but if ur able and willing to, then i give you my permission to do so). And I can also be reached via email at jay_thompson680@hotmail.com
Thanks for this, and again, best of luck for a thesis that’s sure to be groundbreaking.
Cheers,
Jay D. Thompson
Comment by Jazzawithaj — September 30, 2006 @ 12:02 pm
Musicman, you are right. This is what happens when I insert more words into a sentence built for less.
Hey D, yay for the Skatt Brothers!
And Jay, thanks for your comments. The benefit gig sounds great, and so does the doco. (If the gig is for post-production, I’m assuming the doco won’t be screening for a while — let me know when it’s on?)
The plan is probably a bit scattered, I notice I totally left out my ‘ethongraphic method’ section, which is where I explain why it was so necesary to do interviews. Basically, as I’m sure you’re aware, there simply aren’t enough texts that offer the accounts I was after. (Although actually, web diaries and journals exist — but they’re texts in and of cyberspace. And I had my own questions.)
Interesting point about self-reflexivity, and I’m sure that phrase isn’t quite the correct one. I’m trying to get at how the people I’ve been interviewing have quite sophisticated theoretical perspectives on the economics and politics of what they’re a part of. It wouldn’t be wise to treat any of my informants textually simply as ‘informants’ on particular practices that I, as the ‘researcher’, may then draw conclusions on, or theorise. So, a refusal of the distinction betwwen ‘academia’ (theorist) and ‘the world’ (just actors)? Something like that.
Comment by Az — September 30, 2006 @ 1:45 pm
Hey Az,
Thanks for yr feedback re my feedback. Now you’ve explained yr use of the term ’self-reflexive’, it seems much clearer to me. Yes, it is a very wise move to not treat yr interview subjects as mere ‘informants’ - so well done! As to whether the term ’self-reflexive’ is the best one, though … well, that’s up to you to decide. (And i suspect i had switched into ‘fussy tutor’ mode when I picked up on that term…)
Re the doco - it is still being filmed and my producer is hoping to have it screened on SBS and a local Mornington Peninsula station at some point in the future. Just when that’ll be, neither of us are yet sure - but it’s a very marketable project, on a great cause, and will hopefully bring considerable attention to the terrific work The Torch Project do.
And finally - I remember that on yr previous blog, ‘Robots, Dream Lyrics and Desire’, you provided a very witty and incisive commentary on that song ‘Come up and See Me’ (by Steve Harley and the Cockney Rebels). In this commentary, you suggested that maybe “the rebel belongs on the floor” and wondered how a sad song could seem so uplifting. I know you’ve moved on from the ‘Robots’ blog, but do you remember this entry? And do you have a copy you’d be able to send to me via email? I’m a big fan of that song, and yr ‘analysis’ of it was (to my memory) quite on-the-ball.
cheers
Jay
Comment by Jazzawithaj — October 1, 2006 @ 3:49 am
yo! holy collective unconscious, batman!
call shane for a copy of musicological review quarterly -a journal of music and social experience, his new zine, to which i submitted gayle’s list for publication, like, very recently! i’m so glad you dug up an album cover of the skatt bros. hooray for 80’s leather queens, i want more in my life. and also, how great are the cuir underground archives?
and i will return to comment on your thesis chapter plan, which looks totally def and inspiring and intellectually invigorating, because i have to run off now to go-go.
Comment by gaylourdes — October 1, 2006 @ 6:46 am
hey gaylourdes… holy collective unconscious indeed!
ajnd jay, yeah, i do remember the blog entry about ‘come up and see me’. maybe i’ll dig it out.
Comment by Az — October 1, 2006 @ 1:37 pm
This is a comment from Jesse at Sarapen — for some reason the spamkiller bot is killing his comments.
‘So are you writing now or still doing analysis? I was going to suggest some stuff to look at but I don’t want to drag you down with me into the abyss of “must read one more article” syndrome. I’m guessing you hang your hat at your school’s Gender Studies department, though I can see what you think of disciplinary policing from your following post. The whole bakla thing in the Philippines is interesting, there used to be a somewhat popular music scene centred around bakla singers in the 1970’s until the crackdown by the Marcos dictatorship.
Anyway, speaking as a blog researcher I’m curious to know how you found my blog.’
Comment by Az — October 7, 2006 @ 3:51 am
Comments seem to be fixed, now, people.
Comment by Az — October 7, 2006 @ 5:02 am
Hi Jesse,
I’ve been writing paper all weekend, sorry for the lag on answering your comment. I’m writing and doing analysis at the moment: my advisor has me handing in writing every two weeks, even when it’s only notes! And my fieldwork is quite fragmented and dependent on having time/money to take trips — some of it is yet to be done. As I mentioned, I’d be glad of reading suggestions. I don’t know about you, but I’m finding that it’s quite useful to let my thesis mutate depending on what I’m reading.
As for disciplines, I’m in Cultural Studies for reasons of expediency, and despite my basic misfit the CS canon, it does enable the transdisciplinarity I need for this project, at least.
And I think you already know how I found your blog!
Comment by Az — October 8, 2006 @ 1:06 pm