I'm going to try and give enough of a fuck to talk about what information I feel I know and am familiar with.
Topic 1: Cartoons and Animation
I cultivated this interest due to one exhausted mother who needed to rest after work, and thus left my sibling and I to be raised in part by our television set. Nickelodeon at it's prime, when the first three cartoon shows released by the network premiered in what I think was the early ninties; Doug, Rugrats and Ren & Stimpy (At least I think those were the first three shows).
From this beginning I and my sibling got our first taste of cartoons. Ren & Stimpy is nearest to my heart because I watched it when I was around 6, and I remember being aware that what I was viewing was highly subversive and unlike everything else I watched on television. This taught me that cartoons, while considered a medium for children, held the potential anything the human mind could imagine, which elevated it to level of art, at its best. (I also really enjoyed Rocko's Modern Life. Both these shows hold up for adult audiences in their humor and edginess).
Today, My sibling and I are avid fans of animation as a medium. We recently went to a cartoon art museum. I highly encourage anyone who doubts that the genre of anime has anything to offer, to challenge those beliefs. If you ignore this genre you are really missing out on a lot of original, entertaining and beautiful cinema in a medium that American culture has inadvertently stiffled by restricting it to the label of children's entertainment.
I would recommend
Cowboy Bebop for anyone uncertain, but curious to explore the anime genre. It's humorous, clever, has great characters, plot, animation, action sequences, and is genuinely just a solid example of
entertainment overall. If you can appreciate cinema that is deep and genuinely anchored to artful expressions and meaningful messages, then I recommend watching some
Hayao Miyazaki, or rather, a
Studio Ghibli film.
My favorite Ghibli film, though it is a highly personal opinion, is
Porco Rosso. It is the story of a man with a curse of looking like a literal pig, which I interpret as symbolism for the fact that it is explicitly stated that he is a Communist (hence the title of the film which means Red Pig in what I believe is Italian). It takes place inbetween WWI and WWII, and the pig protagonist was a fighter pilot in the first world who has refused to take part in WWII because at that time, historically, Italy was becoming fascist and allying with Germany. I believe his pig appearance is symbolic for the stigma of being a Communist in that period (If you don't know what I'm talking about look up 'the red scare'). The movie is heartfelt, deep and beautiful, and Hayao Miyazaki's passion for airplanes is captured so perfectly. I know nothing about them myself, but this director made me feel excited over the real life details as well as the magic element of human flight.
Here's a commercial that gives nothing away, but gives you a vague sense of what the movie is like that I am describing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4SyyLJKmUk
I am an embarrassing encyclopedia, and follower of information related to the topic of animation, and really anything drawn by hand, or brought to life by the human imagination. Music, live-action cinema, animation, books, but animation has always been close to my heart. I have a theory that it is because it reminds me of being young, when everyday could be a lazy day spent indoors, with nowhere to be and nothing to do, just time to kill in an endless quest for relaxation and fun.
Topic 2: Politics & Feminism
I'm going to be brief here because politics is a complicated issue and there is so much that could be said, and I'm just not up for the task of specifying my every opinion and why I hold it.
In short, I consider myself Progressive, and am reveling in this new age of alternate media outlets. I love the knowledge that Fox and CNN are losing viewers in droves because the people finally have a wide range of independent and unique options, and see the general corruption and inaccuracy of the swath of lies forced upon us all year long in the shit storm that is the 24 hour news cycle.
I think OWS is the coolest thing I've seen in a long time, and I love reading and hearing about its successes whenever they pop up, and about how resilient and persistent some of the people involved in it are. It's very inspiring and breathe of fresh air that gives me hope for the future of humanity, though it is a dim, skeptical hope, it is better than no hope at all.
I am open-minded to all points of view as long as I can tell that the person I am conversing with has this same bottom line, which is the acquisition of accurate information, regardless of biases to the best of our abilities.
My favorite recent televised news outlet is on the somewhat obscure channel owned by Al Gore called
Current TV. I would highly recommend you get this in your cable package, and watch the news show
The Young Turks with Cenk Uygur.
The Young Turks, or TYT, started off as a news show online and have a massive following on the internet and lead the ratings on the Current TV channel. This is the only news program that is aggressively progressive. If you're a democrat, or liberal and get angry over how many mainstream democrats play softball with certain egregious and offensive elements in politics, appearing weak because they are bought off by certain industries and told to maintain their docile and timid defense of classically democratic beliefs- well this is the show for you. This show cites its sources and lays down the facts, welcoming all perspectives to their show for honest intellectual discussion and debate. The host, Cenk Uygur, had a brief career at MSNBC as an anchor after TYT became a hit online, and left this lucrative career after he was confronted by MSNBC management for being too passionate and delivering the news with the outrage it deserved and the poignancy of biting journalism it requires. Cenk made a video to his online audience explaining how he could never censor himself because of his commitment to justice, and that if he had agreed to 'play ball' by obscuring and muddling the truth, then he would be just as much responsible for the hypocrisy and corruption that he has fought so furiously from the very beginning.
Cenk Uygur and
the Young Turks news have integrity and honesty. That is more than you can ask from any other news channel on television.
Other news sources I flirt with: Alternet.org, Slate.com, TheHuffingtonPost, TheNewYorkTimes, TheLosAngelesTimes,
sometimes MSNBC, Motherjones.com, Colbert, Jon Stewart, C-SPAN, PBS
As far as feminist ideology goes, I will say this. It is HIGHLY misunderstood due to stereotypes popularized in film and television that are not at all based in science, and more often than not based in pure and simple ignorance, with the occasional malicious joke thrown in by the legitimately misogynistic terd. One of these studies from UCSD on women and film discovered the little known numerical disparity in Hollywood entertainment of white, middle-aged men who GREATLY outnumber any other group in control of the individual processes involved in creating Hollywood entertainment, THUS many popular stereotypes perpetuated are from the constant perspective the white, middle-aged, male. It is really hard to be a feminist because of certain, uneducated popular sentiments that often favor the white male POV because of the high influence of the white male in comparison to the voice of the rest of us in this world.
The only thing I mean when I call myself a feminist is that I believe in the simple idea that I deserve equal political, economic and general social civil rights. Television and film would have you believe that because I identify with feminism that I hate or blame men for everything, or that I want to burn my bra and yell and complain and play the victim. This is not true at all. It's insulting in the same way as when say your parents believe you are just 'going through a phase', and thus making the assumption that you are just pretending to like something or feel a certain way to feel special, boost your ego, or for some other shallow, illegitimate reasons. It's kind of like when people that are anti-gay make the claim that there are people that pretend they are gay just to be cool. Why would you want to be gay when people are given so much shit, even physical and verbally abused for their sexual orientation? Who would WANT to subject themselves to that? And why would I want to call myself a feminist, when it is not in vogue at all! Many people are uneducated on the subject, and automatically assume false things about you based on stereotypes, and essentially decide to hate you before you have a chance to even show that you're not a frigid, angry lesbian that hates men.
Much of being a feminist, in my day to day experience, is simply trying to make others aware of the fallacies they hold as true and accurate in regards to their understandings on women's rights and issues, and the maligned term of feminist. I don't go looking to discuss the topic, but if I hear someone say something I find ignorant or hateful, I am going to point it out and ask to discuss and debate the topic objectively whilst reminding individuals whenever they allow themselves to make arguments in terms of absolutes, and to think in black and white stereotypes, especially the more offensive and obnoxious ones.
I would recommend
'Full Frontal Feminism' for anyone who would like to give the subject a chance. Also, if you come in contact with a branch of feminism that you find legitimately unreasonable, then please don't let that immediately color your understanding of the entire genre. There are crazy individuals in every group. White people have the KKK, hippies have the Weather Underground, republicans have Fox News, liberals have Bill Maher...you know, you can't control every individual that falls under the umbrella of one ideology.
I realize it is sometimes hard for some men not to take certain conclusions feminist research and studies suggest as a personal attack on men, but let me assure you that personally, I find the legitimate feminist research is not intending to attack the male gender by blanketing men in the light of being 'bad' or the cause of all problems, but only pointing out instances where the patterns of men impact women. There are also plenty of negative things women contribute to the world, to each other, and to men exclusively. We are all to blame for different things to be sure, and it is not the goal of my feminism, or any feminists I regard, to cast men in an unfavorable light for the sake of putting men down. Men do wonderful things that I admire all the time, and I am a big fan of them in more ways then one *wink*. It also doesn't hurt that a feminist woman is likely not to keep an unwanted pregnancy, which I think most men would be relieved and glad to know, and also represent a sexually open-minded sect of the population that has great potential for your wildest sexual fantasies, lol.
After reading my blurb on feminism, you still find yourself unsure of whether you should grant the feminist cause your stamp of approval, I implore you to at least do your very best to not fall victim to blindly accepting popular gender related stereotypes (toward men or women), and also hearing the arguments of non-whites and women with an open mind and with the knowledge that their voices are the ones often unrepresented and thus may take some active listening and genuine desire to understand. After that, you are perfectly welcome to disagree if you still find yourself unconvinced.
....
anyway, there is my lengthy rantings on the useless subject matter I generally invest myself in. Hope you can understand where I'm coming from, if not only slightly.
its angular(is that right?), Im into the power style mostly not the girls version. its best danced on power noise music
. its fast and it focuses on the arms - like the opposite of shuffling, just not as monotonous and boring. well its electro so anything electroish - i go for it
. a lot of hip swinging, self touching, well you know. I end up doing this on slower music.
