skeevy things in Chicago

an ongoing list.

Portajohn's in the forest Preserves.

scary things in Chicago

an ongoing list:
Side-windowless vans on the southside

INTERPRETIVIST

The thing about facts on the ground is that they don't leave the ground.

Man war

I guess there's a fight in the world of people who write ads that run during football and are geared towards football fans. This is about the word "man-" as prefix.

Howie Long, in a truck commercial* ridicules some poor schlub about a feature on his truck. Long, who is a former terrifying defensive end and square of jaw, calls this feature a "man-step." This poor guy, whose jaw is out of square, and is designed to overall seem less virile and competent than Long, has made the womanly** choice and bought a truck that has a feature that is convenient. The wuss.

Then, there are radio ads for some sort of body wash. I didn't get the particulars of brand/specific product name whatever. It's narrated by former Eagle defensive-lineman current-ESPN walking heart attack Mike Golic. He talks about using the body wash to take care of your "man-suit."

The ads use the prefix to 1) make something seem less masculine and 2) make something seem more masculine. A semiotic disagreement.

"Man-step"echoes the Seinfeldian "not-a-purse/man-bag." I'm surprised that Long doesn't call it Euro.

"Mansuit" is there to make men think it's ok to care if they smell terrible or not. Because men can't care about this even one tiny little bit unless they wrap it in several layers of masculine talk.

So when "man' is used as a prefix, how am I supposed to feel?



BTW, Both dudes are in TECMO Superbowl, BTW. Long is better.

*goddamn them and the flood or urine-colored lite beer ads during football.
** obv. I'm using this on THEIR terms as pejorative.

Kafka was right

Today I was asked to install some software that I had never heard of on a machine that I didn't know existed. The Requestor gave me incomplete instructions for the wrong version. This is all I have to go on. It is with this in mind that I suggest Franz Kafka as the one true Prophet of modernity, having seen deeply and truly into the great dead heart of the 20th century.

This is the absurd engine of our insane economy: rituals and rules.

And Kafka was the best at this because he wasn't all like "ha ha you want that in triplicate too?! but instead showed us the voluntary terror and dread of living under the dominion of the unkillable behemoth; the fear and angst of the glacially-paced death we invite bureaucracy to inflict on us all.

AM/PM

AM/PM convenience is now in chicago. They have brought a plague of ads. Really a plague of one ad. But! RE: the slogan: "Too much good stuff"
Dear AM/PM, that's exactly the problem. Love, me.

Classic rock is killing me

We listen to classic rock at work: 97.1 The Drive. They play "the greatest music ever made." Jerks.

So I hear a lot of songs over and over again. After they become wallpaper, totally background, certain patterns can pop back out, like the swirls in the ceiling that suddenly look like a face. One thing that grabbed me. The song: "Rock and Roll Heart." He says he "gets off" (ugh) on "screaming guitars" in a song which has a dramatic lack of them. In fact, the last time Clapton was around a screaming guitar was probably 73 when he made a record with Duane Allman.

the internet

wins 
again.

Sorry Brittanica

...you lose.

Image from this article on wikipedia.

James ellroy

is quietly (in some sense) writing the great, sprawling American paranoid, post-modern, modernist novel. It's taking him year and it's coming in installments but shit is it good. Next one due next summer. Oh yeah.

so like...

the semsester's over. I have a few hours of free time. I have no idea what to do with myself. Should I spend two days drunk at museums?

bent my wookie

Ice Storm! I ran ten miles in an ice storm on sunday. Then, while walking to my car, slipped and fell. I remember thinking "don't fall on the laptop." I didn't. But my ibook's case is bent so it doesn't sit flat anymore. I think this all looked pretty comical fromm across the street.

Ack!knowledgemments

Is it wrong to give shout outs to breweries in the acknowledgements section of my thesis? Significant thoughts were thought and words were written while under the influence of their products. Yay Avery. Yay New Belgium. Yay Goose Island.

Thesis blog

This just in: Clifford Geertz is a goddamn genius.

So I haven't really been putting the process down in the old internets. Oh well. I wonder. The discipline of the diary (cf. guitar Craft's diaries)--is that a discipline I need? I mean, I've already got so many. what is the value of discipline anyway? why am I asking this? I'm sort of existential about it: you do it so that you can do it. Huh. I guess blogging is about saying nonprofound things. so here I am.

chicago weather forecast decoder ring

90 percent chance of sever thunderstorms means it will be a nice day, but breezy.

10percent chance of light showers means you're going to get soaked and hit by lightening.

Things that happen when you're in Grad School

Your wife falls asleep on your copy of Oreintalism.

your world is wireless and full or terrible douchebags

Why are all thes cell phone commercials showing how their tech enables you to be an annoying and rude person? I like the sidekick ads where all the kids organize a shopping cart race in the supermarket. I wish someone would just stick their foot out and trip one of 'em. On the plus side, it seems like a perfect opportunity for some Laslo Letters-type thing where you start a letter writing campaign about how in times of terrorism and heightened security, it's irresponsible to show this kind of subversive action in public places.

But Whatever. I'd like to do a study on the portrayal of anti-social behavior in connectivity-themed advertising. I think maybe I'd find that these companies were privileging tech-mediated (Their tech of course) interaction over non.

The eye is naturally drawn...

100_0749
Originally uploaded by earixson

This photo, where I clearly state that NO ONE is topless, is my most viewed photo on flickr.

On being tracked down through facebook etc.

To what extent do I owe it to old and former friends to be objectified by their nostalgia trips?

blogging the thesis

I think I'll blog the process of completing my master's thesis. Today, I'm reading "Interpretation of Cultures" by Clifford Geertz.  More to come.