And hey, Nate! The cake turned out very delicious. Tangy and spongy. Gender Trials looks really interesting, I’ll look out for it; I find it pretty fascinating that people were talking about ‘emotional labor’ in a feminist context and that mutated into autono ‘affective labor’. I wonder how that came about, and how one influenced the other.

I just read (well, skimmed) a book recently about the gendered division of emotional labor in law firms, it’s called Gender Trials, also pre-dates the aut- stuff on affective labor. That’d be a fun reading group, to compare that sort of thing to the immaterial labor whatsits.

Wish I had some cake… how did it turn out?

cheers,
Nate

this is interesting, and perhaps clarifies something i noticed recently on this side of the world. So, not so long ago, i got treated to a meal at a fancy thai restaurant in an upmarket Johannesburg Suburb. beyond the group of [local] waiters (dressed in trendy, loose fitting, black linen outfits) the restaurants staff included a group of young women dressed in tight ‘tradition’ dresses, whose work it seemed to be to go, table-to-table, offering patrons a massage - something like R50 for however many minutes. also the women were paid at the table after the massage (not on the bill and i remember wondering if they were paid anything by the restaurant beyond what they collected directly from patrons. but, at any rate, similar kinds of affective labour is not that uncommon here, and in fact the ‘repackaging’ of ‘African culture’ and the ‘traditional’ is a bread and butter of the local tourist industry. What set the thai restaurant encounter apart, i think, including the particular transactional form, was precisely the sense of something like a sexual economy, even if not explicit, that, as you say “draws on the same repackaging of ‘traditional’ Thai femininity and requires workers to perform that traditional femininity”. so i found all this somewhat odd in a restaurant, but now that you mention that there is something of a industry of this kind, perhaps the model was imported. i dunno. but thanks for this

i like the notion of the library having moods and being somewhat cyborgian… now, just imagine what that present might be if you were in a GIANT CONCRETE TURKEY LIBRARY! :)

And Ubuweb — thanks, I love it and had forgotten about it.

The 365 days projects: http://www.ubu.com/outsiders/365/index.shtml

Ah, come to think of it, ubuweb in general: http://www.ubu.com/

One of their gracious hosts, the formidable WFMU: http://www.wfmu.org/

and finally, Some Assembly Required: http://www.some-assembly-required.net/

I’m glad you’re having such a good experience being out, too! Arse-kicking is a very important ability to nourish.

I’ve had someone try to convince me to go stealth recently. I tried spending 3 days stealth away from home, failed miserably, and felt totally stressed, depressed and shattered.
So I’m out and proud now. Gives me a lot more flexibility in my dress, behaviour, and arse-kicking ability.