Don't underestimate elementary-school art students!

(click the image to see it in a more legible size)

Behold: the patron saints of snarky pop-culture-critic bloggers

...as well as an early-ish example of a pop culture product beating its detractors to the punch.

"Every text creates its reader" - Umberto Eco

I haven't seen Avatar yet (movies just aren't worth paying a babysitter to take care of a toddler), but am marvelling at the inevitable "otherkin" reactions to the film.  Some people online are claiming that they are (spiritually and metaphysically) Na'vi, the computer-animated furry amalgam of Native American and Southeast Asian stereotypes presented as the "noble savage" in the movie.  There's even someone who's trying to create a "new Native American tribe" based on the Na'vi in Florida.

I've always been interested in personal statements from the insane and delusional, and over the last decade-and-change of access to the internet have found a lot of hilarious examples of group psychology, body dysmorphism and internet anonymity combining to create groups of people whose commonality is that they are all secretly something better than human - be it elves, dragons, mystical hermaphroditic foxes with butterfly wings, or now Na'vi.

What's greatest about watching this new group of "otherkin" emerge is that they're getting no love from the people who get together online to discuss how they're all elves or vampires or whathaveyou.  Because, you see, Na'vi are fictional. 

If this causes a huge internet meltdown with cries of 'persecution' and offensive attempts at identity politics which coopt the legitimate claims and identities of real-world minority groups, I will take back everything bad I've said about James Cameron since halfway through The Abyss.

DIY Publishing: Zines and Comix

Here's a video that I made with Lisanne McTernan for Rebecca Bourgault's Diverse Classrooms in a Visual Culture class this past semester:

(WARNING:  naughty language, naughty drawings, and beer-drinking appear, so maybe you don't want to view this at work if that's an issue there)





It was a lot of fun meeting and talking to all of the interviewees, and I'm pretty happy with the final product (which took way too long to edit, but which piqued my interest in doing more video work later).  One of these days, once my schedule and finances allow it, I am going to get off my ass and attend the Comic Jam again with the goal of having a beer, making obscure comic-book references and drawing goofy jokes, rather than filming people doing the same.

Vic Chesnutt, 1964-2009

R.I.P., Vic, and thanks so much for all the music.  I'm sorry that it got so difficult for you.

Cranky little art-icle I wrote for a great pop-culture site:

The Top 10 Emerging Artists of the Decade, on Heavy.com

Enjoy - and if you do, Digg it (if you know what that means), share the link, comment away, all that stuff.

I'm hoping to write more for Heavy in the near future.  It's definitely worth checking out if you haven't seen the site before.

The Native Americans (First Nations, etc) can't get a fair shake

One of the issues that we've talked about a lot in Rebecca's class over the last few weeks was representations of and by the natives in North America.  I'm going to post images from children's books that casually (and seemingly without malicious intent) reiterate embarrassing and damaging stereotypes about Native Americans, but in the meantime, let's head down to South America to check out this appalling Brazilian TV clip from 1989, featuring the kinderpop star Xuxa. (who was pretty much the #1 cultural icon in Brazil in the 80s, aside from perhaps the soccer player Pele).



"Playing like Indians"?

It's amazingly painful to watch for many reasons, from her feathered headdress and maracas to the bopping blonde teenagers in marching-band uniforms, and ESPECIALLY the massively condescending inclusion (and simultaneous sidelining) of "authentic" Ya̧nomamö tribesmen, who look confused and offended by the entire spectacle.

Amazonian natives are some of the most threatened tribes in the New World, what with their being based in rainforest that is disappearing at a rapid clip (due not only to expansion by the hegemonic Brazilian culture but also, of course, due in large part to Western industrial agriculture). It sort of makes me wish that the tribesmen would act like the "meanest people on Earth" stereotype levied on them by anthropoligists such as Napoleon Chagnon - whoever planned and actuated this performance might well have deserved to be beaten to death with a log and cannibalized.