press conferencelostcosmonautJune 21 2012, 15:01:47 UTC
ah'll take yr questions in order:
A) Ah plan on being here and growing here for a while. It's like buying shoes a size too big, in anticipation
B) Not sure if ah changed my el gay profile page (2 lazy 2 look), but ah def changed my FB one. I remember because Billy Ray, who lives here, too, 'liked' it
C) Solitude does make it easier, as always
D) I saw a Dodge Magnum on th road recently, and it looked like a hearse, a v. handsome hearse, and it stuck in my mind. It turns out they were discontinued after th 2008 model
E) Blay Ronner's not my favourite, but I admire it, and I say its name aloud more than that of any other movie
F) Th "Mexican" accent is my least-practiced one of th three presented here. I often read to myself in "English" and talk to dogs in "Southern"
What's up, PDX? I "attended" that comix reading you were pimping last month; it was v. successful
How do you handle yr urges to update, if you have such urges anymore
I "see" you most frequently on FB, but it seems like an inappropriate (shitty) place to update
I was sure you had actually bought a Dodge and left the silver car in Hicksville; I am sleepy, but even in my most wakeful states not good at at sorting out fact from ... whatever is not a fact ... for instance I would have been sure that you, speaking in an English accent, was a not-fact, but I seem to have been confronted with proof to the contrary -- !
The comics readings are still happening, once a month. Last month we had a guy reading War and Peace comics, a tribute to the ghost of Donna Summer, and a cartoonist who gave us all life advice (something which seems to be in vogue this month -- I very much like your existential advisor over at tumblr, I don't think of tumblr as being a place where people use words much, but s/he is great) (also I just discovered Dear Sugar) (and askmetafilter). It's nice to be doing stuff in a group, and it is certainly great to see cartoonists reading out loud, all pale and shaky and ink-stained with bad social skills but standing up like homo sapiens all the same --
I did update a little, in the fall, and have been meaning to return, but it's so not-social now it's more like updating an actual diary, so, like, "what's up, diary" whatever. Also because we, which is to say since Me and El Jay don't talk hardly at all, it's hard to start talking. It's like, if I see someone I haven't seen in years and they're like "WHAT'S UP SINCE 1993" my mind goes flat, while if I see Daniel after several hours of separation I have about twenty million things to tell him about cat butts and gardening techniques and overpronation. So yeah. I have been stuck trying to give LJ a resume instead of a hangout.
And reading Metafilter when I want to Internet.
I do miss my brontosaurus, to fuck up the metaphor.
Passed through Oxnard on a train last month and thought vague things about Los Bros Hernandez while watching people pick strawberries. I still want to make more comics with you, if you are game.
flowers on th coffinlostcosmonautJune 21 2012, 17:16:21 UTC
i loved th subject lines ... they really fucked up on that one
Some journal templates still support subject lines, but not mine. I can still stick one in there, though, as you can see, if I reply directly through e-mail
isn t being able to sort out non facts sort of a plus in yr professionlostcosmonautJune 21 2012, 17:07:23 UTC
well mebbe you are a little psychic because ah did leave Megatron in Hicksville, but th car I've got now is a humble little Nissan Versa that is, if anything, even more of a wimp than Megatron
You are lucky to live in a place w/ v. good cartoonists who are in demand. We have some cartoonists here, and I went to a party that some of them were @ but haven't befriended any yet
Yes th culture is such that if you drift away from th community for a while, people act like it's a big deal when you come back, or like it was a big deal when you went away -- it's not casual @ all
It's an Internet equivalent of bumping into an acquaintance on th street and pretending not to see them
Part of this is that el jay is and always has been a female-run community, which means there's a heavy emphasis on friend maintenance, and if you don't do yr regular upkeep on intimacy, like a tamagotchi, it dies
and when you come back, now you're a zombie
or worse (esp. from a female-run community's perspective), a stalker
El jay never did make peace w/ its exhibitionist tendency -- if you're watching w/o cultivating an intimate bond, you're a gate-crasher, you have no status, even though th community's interface makes lurking an easy (even attractive) option
You can't lurk @ a flesh'n'blood social gathering -- or if you do, it's v. obvious -- but we're still playing by flesh'n'blood rules here, even 10 years later
which is why people who don't comment to me very often feel compelled to preface their statements w/, "I don't comment here much, but ..." -- even though I have made a point of never saying anything like "Oh ho ho ah see you komment here for first time in many moons Mr Lurkerface"
Sorters, when talking to fabulists, have to keep saying REALLY over and over again, that's how the job is done. To fact-check your whole UPDATE would take approximately one bazillion years as done through comments -- but my recollection is that the more fabulist sounding parts (like the comic laid on your baby-back) are usually the true ones.
The thing though is that I don't feel like uptight narratives are what "the community" is imposing on me, it's my own uptightnes plus that the quietness makes it feel more like "writing" and less like "hanging out." In the old days I could put up a picture of a papaya, or just a question, and get a bunch of responses within a couple of hours. So it was more like conversation, back then, where now it feels more like bloggery -- like if I write two pages, in a week I will have a handful of comments saying things like "interesting point of view!"
It's true about the in-group out-group thing though, too. Maybe if I weren't on that list of all-time lostcommenters I would feel less comfortable even commenting now, here.
On reread, are you having an unusually self-hatey time?
p.s. Speaking of female-run communities I am still sorry I dropped the ball on that conversation about Dave Sim etc. over at Goodreads, I had a lot to say but for some reason didn't want to say it. However the list of the things that interest you, in order, as discussed with yr wife in the car, is very interesting and kind of like another little comic book, somehow.
misogyny and toniclostcosmonautJune 22 2012, 15:02:13 UTC
don't worry, ah'll probably come back to that topic in el gay before I'm done -- hardly anybody I know reads Goodreads, so that was a good place to work out a rough draft of my thoughts on Dave Sim's anti-feminism, which is not a polite topic for a female-run community
It was mostly because it was on Goodreads that I didn't want to talk about it, I was overly aware of the other people in the forum getting notification emails, plus I don't love talking about inflammatory shit in public forums, this will go down on your permanent record, right, plus talking about inflammatory shit at all gives me a heart attack, which is in interesting juxtaposition to you, conflict-anthropologist.
p.s. I was talking to D. about this on the way home today, and he was comparing the "I don't write much, so I have to write a resume if I'm going to return" phenomena to having parties. We have a "party" at our house every Thursday, everyone is welcome to come over, it's not a big thing, usually we just make soup and sit around and talk (though originally I hoped people would come over and draw, it hasn't turned out that way). Anyway the first couple of times people came over, we were totally uptight and had five different kinds of beverages and people brought wine and flowers and stuff, and we cleaned the fuck out of the house, and so forth. But we've been doing it since January, and now people don't bring wine anymore, if they come they just show up kind of like they did last week. I guess that's the difference for me between a dormant relationship and an active one -- it's only with the latter kind that I feel free to come as I am ... ?
p.p.s. "blogging about how one hasn't blogged much, lately"
lostcommenter number eightlostcosmonautJune 22 2012, 14:48:47 UTC
yES "interesting point of view" is th least interesting point of view
I agree w/ you, but I really think th uptightness of th community (which is an essential part of its charm -- who wants to be part of a club that isn't exclusive?) amplifies whatever uptightness you're already bringing to th table
I'm glad you're concerned for my well-being. Th truth is I don't know for certain whether I'm depressed or not, but I'm pretty sure depressed is not a meaningful label for me. Th truth as I see it is more or less what I typed in my diary entry -- a combination pep rally and escape from "self", an attempt to write an essay about depression in th imperative voice -- but make it informative & universal
Oh, ah didn't mean to ignore yr komment about making more komix w/ you. Of course I'd love to, but it'll probably have to wait until I finish my novel (unless you want to adapt something, like last time)
--mza.
P.S. dunno what my parents put on my back, if anything, never asked. So let's say, maybe that happened
Well, depressed and self-hatey aren't exactly the same thing. Sometimes when I am feeling spectacularly unmotivated I think about Fritz saying "Deprethion ith anything that keepth you from doing thomething." But that whole thing of "I am looking at a yogurt cannister and -- wait -- God I hate myself" sounds like stuff I prefer to think of as chemical. I had a whole month of that experience after the Japanese earthquake last year
-- but whatever about me and the boat I imagine I might one day live in... anyway I hope the waves of self-loathing part soon, or that you get so ninja you can perceive the lovely beach next to the waves of self-loathing, whichever works...
w/r/t more comix, yes I figured it'd be adapting something, it's just a question of finding something to adapt. I was thinking of going back to that goodreads and making a comic out of
(Yesterday in th car, th wife helped me brainstorm a list of my favourite conversational topics, th stuff that least bores me, and it went something like this:
01. racism 02. feminism 03. comix 04. how to pick up chicks 05. class warfare 06. white people 07. 24-hour Tea Party people 08. attractiveness/genetics 09. fat people 10. nerds 11. th Internet 12. time travel 13. Jesus 14. money/business/economics 15. lying 16. sex)
I guess there'd have to be more to it than that, but, yeah, conflict comics! Maybe I will have to wait and adapt your upcoming updation on these subjects, though how you could fit them all into one post I can't fathom. That will be the last one, the uberpost, and it will be forty-two screens long and finally break the livejournal.com algorithim...
thank you aunt fritzi for keeping it reallostcosmonautJune 22 2012, 17:21:57 UTC
mebbe th wisest thing Beto has ever said ......
Ah actually already exceeded th character limit twice in th history of lostcosmonaut and had to edit down th post or break it into two parts -- once just last month in th longest " about th author" o.a.t. (which included a shout-out to you, if you want to scroll down about 16 screens), and once was that Nice Project thing ... Yeah all right, ah'll flesh out our irresistible topics discussion so you'll have something nice 2 draw
Thet ain't gonna be th grand finale though -- I'd like to go out w/ slightly less of a bang
A) Ah plan on being here and growing here for a while. It's like buying shoes a size too big, in anticipation
B) Not sure if ah changed my el gay profile page (2 lazy 2 look), but ah def changed my FB one. I remember because Billy Ray, who lives here, too, 'liked' it
C) Solitude does make it easier, as always
D) I saw a Dodge Magnum on th road recently, and it looked like a hearse, a v. handsome hearse, and it stuck in my mind. It turns out they were discontinued after th 2008 model
E) Blay Ronner's not my favourite, but I admire it, and I say its name aloud more than that of any other movie
F) Th "Mexican" accent is my least-practiced one of th three presented here. I often read to myself in "English" and talk to dogs in "Southern"
What's up, PDX? I "attended" that comix reading you were pimping last month; it was v. successful
How do you handle yr urges to update, if you have such urges anymore
I "see" you most frequently on FB, but it seems like an inappropriate (shitty) place to update
--mza.
Reply
The comics readings are still happening, once a month. Last month we had a guy reading War and Peace comics, a tribute to the ghost of Donna Summer, and a cartoonist who gave us all life advice (something which seems to be in vogue this month -- I very much like your existential advisor over at tumblr, I don't think of tumblr as being a place where people use words much, but s/he is great) (also I just discovered Dear Sugar) (and askmetafilter). It's nice to be doing stuff in a group, and it is certainly great to see cartoonists reading out loud, all pale and shaky and ink-stained with bad social skills but standing up like homo sapiens all the same --
I did update a little, in the fall, and have been meaning to return, but it's so not-social now it's more like updating an actual diary, so, like, "what's up, diary" whatever. Also because we, which is to say since Me and El Jay don't talk hardly at all, it's hard to start talking. It's like, if I see someone I haven't seen in years and they're like "WHAT'S UP SINCE 1993" my mind goes flat, while if I see Daniel after several hours of separation I have about twenty million things to tell him about cat butts and gardening techniques and overpronation. So yeah. I have been stuck trying to give LJ a resume instead of a hangout.
And reading Metafilter when I want to Internet.
I do miss my brontosaurus, to fuck up the metaphor.
Passed through Oxnard on a train last month and thought vague things about Los Bros Hernandez while watching people pick strawberries. I still want to make more comics with you, if you are game.
Reply
Reply
Some journal templates still support subject lines, but not mine. I can still stick one in there, though, as you can see, if I reply directly through e-mail
Dig these, though: http://www.livejournal.com/shop/userheads.bml
Little bit late to be adding cute features, el gay, but all right
--mza.
Reply
You are lucky to live in a place w/ v. good cartoonists who are in demand. We have some cartoonists here, and I went to a party that some of them were @ but haven't befriended any yet
Yes th culture is such that if you drift away from th community for a while, people act like it's a big deal when you come back, or like it was a big deal when you went away -- it's not casual @ all
It's an Internet equivalent of bumping into an acquaintance on th street and pretending not to see them
Part of this is that el jay is and always has been a female-run community, which means there's a heavy emphasis on friend maintenance, and if you don't do yr regular upkeep on intimacy, like a tamagotchi, it dies
and when you come back, now you're a zombie
or worse (esp. from a female-run community's perspective), a stalker
El jay never did make peace w/ its exhibitionist tendency -- if you're watching w/o cultivating an intimate bond, you're a gate-crasher, you have no status, even though th community's interface makes lurking an easy (even attractive) option
You can't lurk @ a flesh'n'blood social gathering -- or if you do, it's v. obvious -- but we're still playing by flesh'n'blood rules here, even 10 years later
which is why people who don't comment to me very often feel compelled to preface their statements w/, "I don't comment here much, but ..." -- even though I have made a point of never saying anything like "Oh ho ho ah see you komment here for first time in many moons Mr Lurkerface"
Wishing everyone a v. casual summer
--mza.
Reply
The thing though is that I don't feel like uptight narratives are what "the community" is imposing on me, it's my own uptightnes plus that the quietness makes it feel more like "writing" and less like "hanging out." In the old days I could put up a picture of a papaya, or just a question, and get a bunch of responses within a couple of hours. So it was more like conversation, back then, where now it feels more like bloggery -- like if I write two pages, in a week I will have a handful of comments saying things like "interesting point of view!"
It's true about the in-group out-group thing though, too. Maybe if I weren't on that list of all-time lostcommenters I would feel less comfortable even commenting now, here.
On reread, are you having an unusually self-hatey time?
Reply
Reply
My own attitude toward women is closer to Buster Keaton's in Th General
When I write about that stuff here, you are th first person whose reaction I will be curious about
--mza.
Reply
Reply
p.p.s. "blogging about how one hasn't blogged much, lately"
Reply
--mza.
Reply
I agree w/ you, but I really think th uptightness of th community (which is an essential part of its charm -- who wants to be part of a club that isn't exclusive?) amplifies whatever uptightness you're already bringing to th table
I'm glad you're concerned for my well-being. Th truth is I don't know for certain whether I'm depressed or not, but I'm pretty sure depressed is not a meaningful label for me. Th truth as I see it is more or less what I typed in my diary entry -- a combination pep rally and escape from "self", an attempt to write an essay about depression in th imperative voice -- but make it informative & universal
Oh, ah didn't mean to ignore yr komment about making more komix w/ you. Of course I'd love to, but it'll probably have to wait until I finish my novel (unless you want to adapt something, like last time)
--mza.
P.S. dunno what my parents put on my back, if anything, never asked. So let's say, maybe that happened
Reply
-- but whatever about me and the boat I imagine I might one day live in... anyway I hope the waves of self-loathing part soon, or that you get so ninja you can perceive the lovely beach next to the waves of self-loathing, whichever works...
w/r/t more comix, yes I figured it'd be adapting something, it's just a question of finding something to adapt. I was thinking of going back to that goodreads and making a comic out of
(Yesterday in th car, th wife helped me brainstorm a list of my favourite conversational topics, th stuff that least bores me, and it went something like this:
01. racism
02. feminism
03. comix
04. how to pick up chicks
05. class warfare
06. white people
07. 24-hour Tea Party people
08. attractiveness/genetics
09. fat people
10. nerds
11. th Internet
12. time travel
13. Jesus
14. money/business/economics
15. lying
16. sex)
I guess there'd have to be more to it than that, but, yeah, conflict comics! Maybe I will have to wait and adapt your upcoming updation on these subjects, though how you could fit them all into one post I can't fathom. That will be the last one, the uberpost, and it will be forty-two screens long and finally break the livejournal.com algorithim...
Reply
Ah actually already exceeded th character limit twice in th history of lostcosmonaut and had to edit down th post or break it into two parts -- once just last month in th longest " about th author" o.a.t. (which included a shout-out to you, if you want to scroll down about 16 screens), and once was that Nice Project thing ... Yeah all right, ah'll flesh out our irresistible topics discussion so you'll have something nice 2 draw
Thet ain't gonna be th grand finale though -- I'd like to go out w/ slightly less of a bang
--mza.
Reply
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