I couldn't resist posting this up.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
It all comes down to perspective.
I am both a bohemian and a feminist. Even though the latter of which took me forever to realize, I declare that I am both proudly. Because of both my veiws, nudity is lost somewhere in between. I take a more bohemian view to nudity with the idea that it is natural because it frees a person from the constraint of clothing. (In a similar vein, it also frees a person from consumerism and the bourgousie society, but that's a topic for another day.)
The two books I'm reading really took an opposing side to nudity....espcially when it comes to Manet's Dejeuner sur l'herbe (pictured below).
Lauren Stover's Bohemian Manifesto (which is my current love affair) takes the more boho view to that fantasic peice of artwork because Manet was a bohemian (he suffered for his art & broke the conventions of what was considered "fine art" at the time).
What's cool beans about Manet's painting is that the female subject (she was actually a prositute & his muse, Victorine) isn't idealized in any way. She isn't "photoshopped" the way that models in magazines or dude rags are. She looks almost innocent in her conversation with the two clothed men.
Because of this, I don't really understand of M. Gigi Durham in The Lolita Effect (it's a pretty good peice of nonfiction). Durham states that the woman's nude presence reinforces patriarchy because "the painters [Manet in this case] and the patrons of the arts were traditionally men, and to bare the femlae body was to shore up masculine power". She also continues by saying that her simply being nude makes her apperance sexual. With this in mind would Cabanel's The Birth of Venus be a sign of patriarchy instead of that of the power of a goddess? Is Veus Di Milo seuxal because she has no arms to cover herself?
I personally believe that what Durham says is a little extreme but judge for yourself.
The two books I'm reading really took an opposing side to nudity....espcially when it comes to Manet's Dejeuner sur l'herbe (pictured below).
Lauren Stover's Bohemian Manifesto (which is my current love affair) takes the more boho view to that fantasic peice of artwork because Manet was a bohemian (he suffered for his art & broke the conventions of what was considered "fine art" at the time).
What's cool beans about Manet's painting is that the female subject (she was actually a prositute & his muse, Victorine) isn't idealized in any way. She isn't "photoshopped" the way that models in magazines or dude rags are. She looks almost innocent in her conversation with the two clothed men.
Because of this, I don't really understand of M. Gigi Durham in The Lolita Effect (it's a pretty good peice of nonfiction). Durham states that the woman's nude presence reinforces patriarchy because "the painters [Manet in this case] and the patrons of the arts were traditionally men, and to bare the femlae body was to shore up masculine power". She also continues by saying that her simply being nude makes her apperance sexual. With this in mind would Cabanel's The Birth of Venus be a sign of patriarchy instead of that of the power of a goddess? Is Veus Di Milo seuxal because she has no arms to cover herself?
I personally believe that what Durham says is a little extreme but judge for yourself.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
French = <3
I am a slave to French literature and what I've discovered is that everything sounds better in French. I mean wayyyy better!! I carry around Baudeleare's Les Fleurs Du Mal like it's a bible and after reading it for the zillionith time, I've realized something. Between the English translation and the original French manuscript, something gets lost in translation - the raw emotion is gone.
Victor Hugo is epic. Read Hernani and you'll know what I mean. So below is a video that I found somewhere of something that Hugo wrote in his native language. While I have no clue what it means because my French is tres mal, it just sounds lovely.
À Juliette Drouet
Victor Hugo
The Victorian pics also help.
Victor Hugo is epic. Read Hernani and you'll know what I mean. So below is a video that I found somewhere of something that Hugo wrote in his native language. While I have no clue what it means because my French is tres mal, it just sounds lovely.
À Juliette Drouet
Victor Hugo
The Victorian pics also help.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
El Paso's Underground Pt.1: Interview w/ Mike
As a research paper for a writing class, I covered El Paso's rock scene. For this, I interviewed Mike Garcia (guitarist) from the band Abnik . For those of you who don't know, Abnik is one of the bigger El Paso bands and has opened up for Flyleaf in '07 (and some other well known bands that I just can't think of off the top of my head). I personally love these guys and I do shameless promotion for their shows. Since I promised quite a number of people that I would be posting up my interview, here it is.
Bohemain in Paradise: Because Abnik performs original music, has the band ever had problems getting booked for shows?
Mike Garcia: I think we were the only original Band around El Paso at the time that really wanted to break the mold (so to speak) in terms of performing in places that normally would not allow Original music to be heard. I remember going to clubs and bars trying to schedule a show and the owners would ask me if we played cover songs and I would tell them Not a single one! They would always turn us down. And that would always piss me off because here they are turning us down when they’ve never even heard a single Musical Note coming out of us! It was hard and I would NOT take no for an answer, and eventually we started performing at place like Crawdaddy’s and Hiney’s.
BIP: If you had to describe the El Paso rock scene in one word, what would it be?
MG: Inconsistent
BIP: In a previous interview, you and Jeremy (Abnik's lead singer) mentioned something about El Paso bands that leave forgetting their roots and claiming that they are from larger cities. Why do you think those bands do that?
MG: I really don’t understand why a lot of bands do that, honestly. But it’s not only here in El Paso that this happens. I guess it all depends where all these bands end up moving to just to be closer to their Record Labels. I think that they eventually end up calling these places where they reside their home.
BIP: What advice would you give local garage rock bands that want to make it big in El Paso?
MG: My advice would be to Stick to your Guns. You have to stick it out for the long run. Success does not happen over night but you also have to be passionate about what you do. Do what you feel is right. Music is all about expression and not everyone will be happy with what you do, but as long as you get one person’s attention, you’re on the right track.
BIP:What's one part of the El Paso rock scene that most people don't know about or is the most misunderstood?
MG: The thing that is most misunderstood is the fact that El Paso really does have a lot of talent. You have all kinds of music that will suit anyone. But there are a lot of bands that are not quite ready to perform Live, and do shows. And that right there is what is hurting our music scene as well. People end up not going to shows because they automatically think that all bands here in town are not good at all.
BIP:How do you think the El Paso rock scene will be in the future?
MG: I really can’t tell how the scene will be in 5 years from now, but as long as ABNIK’s around, you can expect the Music Scene to be full of energy and thriving because we will not let the scene die out in any way. Just like other bands that gave us a chance to perform with them, that’s what I want to be doing in the future, and that is to pave the way for other up and coming bands and give them a chance to be heard.
BIP:Do you ever see Abnik becoming a large Grammy winning band that sells out stadiums?
MG: Of coarse just like any other band, we all dream of making it to the top! It would be great to have our music played on all the Radio Stations and winning awards. It symbolizes our hard work and talent. “And the Award for Breathrough Artist of the Year goes to……”
BIP:On average, how many people come to an Abnik show?
MG:On an average, we get about 30 to 40 people at our shows, but there have been times where we have performed infront of 5,000 people as well. But funny enough, we’ve also done shows where we played infront of 2 people. Ah, the good ol’ days.
BIP: Personally, why you think cover bands are so big in El Paso?
MG: I think one of the main reasons Cover bands are big in El Paso is because a lot of people go to bars where there are cover band already performing. It’s the venues in town who are hiring a lot of cover bands instead of Original bands. For every 1 bar in town that has an Original band performing, there are 10 bars with cover bands. So that is the main reason why. Also, a lot of people want to be in cover bands because it’s fun to play music, but there is NO comparison when it comes to writing your own music and getting appreciated for it.
BIP: Describe the typical Abnik fan.
MG:The typical El Pasoan going to one of our shows would be energetic, loyal, and extremely loud!!!!!
------------------------------------------------------------------
I will be posting up my final reserch paper in the coming days. It ended up being about 9 pages so I'll do it in series of parts.
Bohemain in Paradise: Because Abnik performs original music, has the band ever had problems getting booked for shows?
Mike Garcia: I think we were the only original Band around El Paso at the time that really wanted to break the mold (so to speak) in terms of performing in places that normally would not allow Original music to be heard. I remember going to clubs and bars trying to schedule a show and the owners would ask me if we played cover songs and I would tell them Not a single one! They would always turn us down. And that would always piss me off because here they are turning us down when they’ve never even heard a single Musical Note coming out of us! It was hard and I would NOT take no for an answer, and eventually we started performing at place like Crawdaddy’s and Hiney’s.
BIP: If you had to describe the El Paso rock scene in one word, what would it be?
MG: Inconsistent
BIP: In a previous interview, you and Jeremy (Abnik's lead singer) mentioned something about El Paso bands that leave forgetting their roots and claiming that they are from larger cities. Why do you think those bands do that?
MG: I really don’t understand why a lot of bands do that, honestly. But it’s not only here in El Paso that this happens. I guess it all depends where all these bands end up moving to just to be closer to their Record Labels. I think that they eventually end up calling these places where they reside their home.
BIP: What advice would you give local garage rock bands that want to make it big in El Paso?
MG: My advice would be to Stick to your Guns. You have to stick it out for the long run. Success does not happen over night but you also have to be passionate about what you do. Do what you feel is right. Music is all about expression and not everyone will be happy with what you do, but as long as you get one person’s attention, you’re on the right track.
BIP:What's one part of the El Paso rock scene that most people don't know about or is the most misunderstood?
MG: The thing that is most misunderstood is the fact that El Paso really does have a lot of talent. You have all kinds of music that will suit anyone. But there are a lot of bands that are not quite ready to perform Live, and do shows. And that right there is what is hurting our music scene as well. People end up not going to shows because they automatically think that all bands here in town are not good at all.
BIP:How do you think the El Paso rock scene will be in the future?
MG: I really can’t tell how the scene will be in 5 years from now, but as long as ABNIK’s around, you can expect the Music Scene to be full of energy and thriving because we will not let the scene die out in any way. Just like other bands that gave us a chance to perform with them, that’s what I want to be doing in the future, and that is to pave the way for other up and coming bands and give them a chance to be heard.
BIP:Do you ever see Abnik becoming a large Grammy winning band that sells out stadiums?
MG: Of coarse just like any other band, we all dream of making it to the top! It would be great to have our music played on all the Radio Stations and winning awards. It symbolizes our hard work and talent. “And the Award for Breathrough Artist of the Year goes to……”
BIP:On average, how many people come to an Abnik show?
MG:On an average, we get about 30 to 40 people at our shows, but there have been times where we have performed infront of 5,000 people as well. But funny enough, we’ve also done shows where we played infront of 2 people. Ah, the good ol’ days.
BIP: Personally, why you think cover bands are so big in El Paso?
MG: I think one of the main reasons Cover bands are big in El Paso is because a lot of people go to bars where there are cover band already performing. It’s the venues in town who are hiring a lot of cover bands instead of Original bands. For every 1 bar in town that has an Original band performing, there are 10 bars with cover bands. So that is the main reason why. Also, a lot of people want to be in cover bands because it’s fun to play music, but there is NO comparison when it comes to writing your own music and getting appreciated for it.
BIP: Describe the typical Abnik fan.
MG:The typical El Pasoan going to one of our shows would be energetic, loyal, and extremely loud!!!!!
------------------------------------------------------------------
I will be posting up my final reserch paper in the coming days. It ended up being about 9 pages so I'll do it in series of parts.
Bohemian in Paradise
I am a bohemian with a blog.
When I meet people I usually tell them that I'm a bohemian. Why? Because we're (bohemians) are not common and it's part of my quirkyness.
The first question I am usually asked is what it means to be a bohemian. As a whole, bohemianism is hard to pin down. Merriam Webster defines bohemians as:
1 a: a native or inhabitant of Bohemia b: the group of Czech dialects used in Bohemia
2 a: vagabond, wanderer; especially : gypsy b: a person (as a writer or an artist) living an unconventional life usually in a colony with others
That definition is fine and dandy but it's lacking something.
I have found that only Lauren Stover has accurately defined what it is to be boho in her book "Bohemian Manifesto":
"Who am I? I'm a poet. My business? Writing. In my happy poverty I squander like a prince, In hopes and dreams and castles-in-air,
So, what exactly is a Bohemian? Technically, a Bohemian is a person hailing from that province of the Czech Republic or a gypsy type leading a vagabond life reading palms and tarot cards and playing strange music around the campfire with a dancing bear. The Bohemia of this book is about living beyond convention. Bohemia is an atmosphere, a way of life, a state of mind. Henry Murger, who wrote about himself and all his starving-artist friends, put the word Bohemian into mainstream language in 1849 when his play La Vie de Boheme went up in Paris. He gave a label to the eccentric and socially unorthodox. Poets, painters, absinthe drinkers, dandies on the fringe-any oddball qualified.
Bohemian living or consciousness, if you will, has always been provocative. There's just something about the freedom, recklessness, scandal, artistic vision and spiritual splendor that makes it tantalizingly worthy of membership. Bohemianism is not a trend, it's a timeless movement, a way of life both fleeting and enduring that reappears every now and then as a backlash against our bourgeois, mass market, easy access culture. Bohemianism doesn't always steal the headlines. Bohemianism may be big and shocking but it may also be personal and subterranean, with quiet defiances. Bohemianism slips into our bedroom and makes a personal appearance in our dreams, sits next to us while we're in a car and whispers detours, Bohemianism is the stranger pouring stars and galaxies into our morning beverage while we watch the cat lick its paws, and it's the compulsion we have to pick up a piece of paper on the street and promise ourselves that what's written on it will be the first sentence of our next novel or the name of the yoga center or bar we're opening. Bohemianism is more than an attitude. It's the apolitical freedom of ideas, clothing and behaviors gently outside the norm. It's an elixir of undisclosed ingredients, a strange, bootleg perfume, it's the psychic, globally warmed truth serum the government wants to ban, it's the holy water of the unconscious mind, and once anointed, the underground gold mine of ideas blossoms and bleeds into the open air without self-consciousness, without reproach, without judgment.
Bohemians defy exact definition because they are essentially errant spirits. Bohemians are society's outlaws-mavericks, vagabonds, mad scientists, gypsies, theater people, artists, deviants, radicals, outsiders. They are, in essence, all one clan.
Bohemians transform, mutating and evolving from Dandy to Beat to Flower Child per the prevailing zeitgeist.
You know them when you see them:
She wears velvet in the rain.
He dances with pigeons and does magic tricks in the bookstore cafe.
They walk from Nice to Florence and have a child named Sienna.
They drive a school bus, despite the parking challenges ... and eat porridge while drinking Languedoc.
They wear contrarianism more liberally than ordinary mortals wear polyester.
You see them selling hand-knit hats to tourists on the streets of SoHo, heading to Veselka coffee shop in the East Village at noon for a morning coffee, wearing Value Village as if it were Yohji Yamamoto, reading Gertrude Stein, dressed like George Sand at cafes in the Butte aux Cailles, safe from tourist buses since it's in the thirteenth arrondissement, listening to jazz at Les Instants Chavires in Paris, hiking in a fedora in Katmandu, doing performance art in Williamsburg, moving into a new space in the Tenderloin district in San Francisco because they find North Beach too cliche, on their third pint at a tavern talking about the creation of the universe and the six months they spent in the rain forest and the miracle drug they found growing at the roots of a particular type of tree and by the way it gets you high, sipping free wine in plastic cups at art galleries as artist, collector and muse, reading poetry in bookstores in Berlin, modeling for nude photographs in a cemetery in Prague and scavenging junk shops by bus for vintage furniture later sold to antique dealers to keep themselves in absinthe.
Bohemians may get on your nerves, but even when they appear to be idle, down-and-out, opinionated Slackers, they're stirring things up. Bohemians are the ultimate elitists. They want to run things. They break the rules, set the trends, knit the knits, destroy the art and reinvent the art that everyone wants, or will want. Bohemians start movements. Bohemians change thinking. Bohemians stay up all night talking, and sometimes they write manifestos. Bohemians cross cultures and integrate mantras, philosophies, substances and clothing seamlessly into everyday life. Bohemians tenderly and violently create new work and change paradigms. Bohemians change the world."
When I meet people I usually tell them that I'm a bohemian. Why? Because we're (bohemians) are not common and it's part of my quirkyness.
The first question I am usually asked is what it means to be a bohemian. As a whole, bohemianism is hard to pin down. Merriam Webster defines bohemians as:
1 a: a native or inhabitant of Bohemia b: the group of Czech dialects used in Bohemia
2 a: vagabond, wanderer; especially : gypsy b: a person (as a writer or an artist) living an unconventional life usually in a colony with others
That definition is fine and dandy but it's lacking something.
I have found that only Lauren Stover has accurately defined what it is to be boho in her book "Bohemian Manifesto":
"Who am I? I'm a poet. My business? Writing. In my happy poverty I squander like a prince, In hopes and dreams and castles-in-air,
So, what exactly is a Bohemian? Technically, a Bohemian is a person hailing from that province of the Czech Republic or a gypsy type leading a vagabond life reading palms and tarot cards and playing strange music around the campfire with a dancing bear. The Bohemia of this book is about living beyond convention. Bohemia is an atmosphere, a way of life, a state of mind. Henry Murger, who wrote about himself and all his starving-artist friends, put the word Bohemian into mainstream language in 1849 when his play La Vie de Boheme went up in Paris. He gave a label to the eccentric and socially unorthodox. Poets, painters, absinthe drinkers, dandies on the fringe-any oddball qualified.
Bohemian living or consciousness, if you will, has always been provocative. There's just something about the freedom, recklessness, scandal, artistic vision and spiritual splendor that makes it tantalizingly worthy of membership. Bohemianism is not a trend, it's a timeless movement, a way of life both fleeting and enduring that reappears every now and then as a backlash against our bourgeois, mass market, easy access culture. Bohemianism doesn't always steal the headlines. Bohemianism may be big and shocking but it may also be personal and subterranean, with quiet defiances. Bohemianism slips into our bedroom and makes a personal appearance in our dreams, sits next to us while we're in a car and whispers detours, Bohemianism is the stranger pouring stars and galaxies into our morning beverage while we watch the cat lick its paws, and it's the compulsion we have to pick up a piece of paper on the street and promise ourselves that what's written on it will be the first sentence of our next novel or the name of the yoga center or bar we're opening. Bohemianism is more than an attitude. It's the apolitical freedom of ideas, clothing and behaviors gently outside the norm. It's an elixir of undisclosed ingredients, a strange, bootleg perfume, it's the psychic, globally warmed truth serum the government wants to ban, it's the holy water of the unconscious mind, and once anointed, the underground gold mine of ideas blossoms and bleeds into the open air without self-consciousness, without reproach, without judgment.
Bohemians defy exact definition because they are essentially errant spirits. Bohemians are society's outlaws-mavericks, vagabonds, mad scientists, gypsies, theater people, artists, deviants, radicals, outsiders. They are, in essence, all one clan.
Bohemians transform, mutating and evolving from Dandy to Beat to Flower Child per the prevailing zeitgeist.
You know them when you see them:
She wears velvet in the rain.
He dances with pigeons and does magic tricks in the bookstore cafe.
They walk from Nice to Florence and have a child named Sienna.
They drive a school bus, despite the parking challenges ... and eat porridge while drinking Languedoc.
They wear contrarianism more liberally than ordinary mortals wear polyester.
You see them selling hand-knit hats to tourists on the streets of SoHo, heading to Veselka coffee shop in the East Village at noon for a morning coffee, wearing Value Village as if it were Yohji Yamamoto, reading Gertrude Stein, dressed like George Sand at cafes in the Butte aux Cailles, safe from tourist buses since it's in the thirteenth arrondissement, listening to jazz at Les Instants Chavires in Paris, hiking in a fedora in Katmandu, doing performance art in Williamsburg, moving into a new space in the Tenderloin district in San Francisco because they find North Beach too cliche, on their third pint at a tavern talking about the creation of the universe and the six months they spent in the rain forest and the miracle drug they found growing at the roots of a particular type of tree and by the way it gets you high, sipping free wine in plastic cups at art galleries as artist, collector and muse, reading poetry in bookstores in Berlin, modeling for nude photographs in a cemetery in Prague and scavenging junk shops by bus for vintage furniture later sold to antique dealers to keep themselves in absinthe.
Bohemians may get on your nerves, but even when they appear to be idle, down-and-out, opinionated Slackers, they're stirring things up. Bohemians are the ultimate elitists. They want to run things. They break the rules, set the trends, knit the knits, destroy the art and reinvent the art that everyone wants, or will want. Bohemians start movements. Bohemians change thinking. Bohemians stay up all night talking, and sometimes they write manifestos. Bohemians cross cultures and integrate mantras, philosophies, substances and clothing seamlessly into everyday life. Bohemians tenderly and violently create new work and change paradigms. Bohemians change the world."
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