ok since EVERYONE did it

[lapsedmodernist]

LJ Interests meme results

1. brooklyn:
   The concrete golden lilypad in the middle of my mapped love at 40°47'N latitude 73°58'W longitude
2. disaster memorabilia:
   I already answered this the last time a similar meme came around
3. gift economies:
   non-capitalist form of exchange where social relationships are reencoded through an exchange system that, due to lags in time between exchanges, seems to be comprised of instances of gift-giving, with no immediate reciprocation (but, of course, reciprocation is carefully nuanced and calculated and appropriate, it just does not follow the "instantaneous" blueprint practiced under capitalism). Related to, but different form barter economy, that operates on my favorite principle, Quid Pro Quo
4. islands:
   I love islands. An island location dips any adventure into the properly-aged Julius-Verne potion. Islands ritualize travel, somehow, because their physical location creates a segment of liminality. When you are on an island, you are most definitely Somewhere Other Than You Were Before. Some of my favorite island visits include Nashawena, Baldhead and, in a totally different league, Galapagos. This also makes me realize how hyperlinked my life has been ever since I have arrived in this livejournal place.
5. metonymy:
   my favorite rhetorical device, and one necessary to comprehending the post na-na-la-la neocon semiotic milieu.
6. ocean-water-clean:
   I know you are supposed to take showers after you go swimming, and when I go swimming in the pool or any place with standing water (pond, lake) or even a river, I am eager to wash off afterwards. But swimming in a sea or an ocean makes me feel clean like nothing else in the world. The sea salt that remains on my skin is like a stamp that says "purified properly." My body feels perfect, my hair looks perfect, ocean water never irritates my eyes, and I put off taking a shower after ocean swimming for as long as I can.
7. rings:
   I have a large collection of rings (maybe 60 or 70). I used to pick combinations of rings to wear every morning. Now I only wear a couple at a time, for the most part. Also anyone who knows me knows that the closest thing I have to a "charm" is a beaten silver ring that I wear every day and I would be most unhappy if I found myself on a plane and it was not on my finger.
8. sx-70:
   Time-Zero photography. You see me posting pictures I take with my SX-70 camera periodically. They are the dreamlike ones that look like stills from old French movies.
   
9. the scopes trial:
   The Scopes Trial meme has been brought out of retirement, we have moved from the un-50s and un-40s (the war! World Gulf War Two!) and now we are in the un-20s. Anyway, I have also already talked about it. The Scopes trial is an example of how a victory of rationality and reason can be eroded if it is won on a technicality, and what a bitter kernel it is beneath all the spun layers of myth and progress.
10. veronica mars:
    My new favorite TV show, the only thing that has come close to filling the void left in network programming and my life after the end of Buffy. It is smart, dark and deals with class better than any other show I have ever seen, except, maybe, Roseanne.

Enter your LJ user name, and 10 interests will be selected from your interest list.

Comments

[dcart.livejournal.com]

Did you happen to read Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion? It came out in the late 90s. Very readable, engaging book that's a pretty solid history of the event.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

I have not read it! But I will definitely check it out. Thanks!

[klingrap.livejournal.com]

Did you know Burning Man is a gift economy? I made all these gifts that I ended up not really giving out that much, and I also didn't get many gifts in return, so I kind of questioned the efficacy of the whole "gifting" process. Although I'd brought pretty much everything I needed, so I guess it didn't matter that much anyway.

[orpheusinhades.livejournal.com]

I pressed the button and it gave me disturbingly mundane interests. Maybe I have disturbingly mundane interests.

On another note, I never watched Roseanne when it was first around, out of some obstinate feeling that it was not written for me. But since I have seen (I think) all of its episodes, and precisely for the reason you quote - it really is conscious of class in a way that ordinary American shows are not. Though I enjoy such claptrap as Friends, there is something in my mind that rebels at unemployed thirty-somethings living in Manhattan apartments five times the size of my apartment, including Phoebe, who apparently was raised on the streets and works as a massage therapist.