I'll let you know how this works out.

Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2005 11:54:48 +0600
From: Add To Address Book
Subject: dvd compilations
To: skip@avgeeks.com

Hi Skip,

I just came across your AV Geeks site as I was hunting around for
1980s Sex Education films on the internet. There's a few titles that
I found pretty interesting and I was wondering if you do custom
DVD-Rs at all. I'm particularly interested in The Last Prom, Joy
Ride-An Auto Theft, I Like Bikes, and Youth Suicide Fantasy.

Also, any help or hints you could offer in terms of looking for
1980s Sex Education films would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Nathan Holmes

HALLOWEEN


My updated version of my brother's costume from last year. I'm a superhero called "Sound Man" (not wearing mask at this point)


Elf vs. Patty Hearst (Rachel)


James is "elfish", Elise is Margot Tenenbaum


This is King Diamond from Merciful Hate. Everyone seemed to know this but me, which lead me to think: a) I know less than most people about metal and b) perhaps people in Chicago know more about metal than average Toronto folk. Nonetheless, Josh, a cool guy, offered a brief history of black metal on the back patio. You know Mortiss? I always thought he had cosmetically altered himself to have elf ears and forked toes. Turns out its all a costume.


We started throwing records around


This guy's costume is not DFA1979, it's drunk, married 21 yr old.


And then it was morning. Enlarge the picture to see two guys sitting in chairs at the edge of that lot. That's what Graeme and I like to call "settling in." I bet they'll read the paper, chat to some friends, maybe have a kip.


And then I had to go to the libary to do a paper. Can you believe this place?

I was supposed to do work today, but instead I totes slacked. My costume is pretty good, I'll post some pics later. It's an improvment--a "remix" if you will--of my brother's costume from last year (which I built by the way).

Anyway, I'm going to a grad student Halloween party tonight, I hope to god it will not be lame. Scratch that, I will try to ensure that it is not lame. I just burnt a FUCKING AWESOME Halloween MX, here's the tracklist:

Hollaback Girl (Diplo Baltimore remix) - Gwen Stefani
Sunshowers - MIA
Shake Yr Coconuts (DFA rmx) - Junior Senior
Goldigger - Kanye West
We'll be Burning - Sean Paul
Bam Bam - Sister Nancy
Heartbeat - Annie
Manila (Zongamin rmx) - Seelenluft
Is it All Over MY Face? - Loose Joints
Da Funk - Daft Punk
Over and Over - Hot Chip
Love Will Freak Us - Joy Division vs Missy Eliott
Give Me Every Little Thing - Juan Maclean
Skeelo vs Eye of the Tiger - Soulwax
Sexy Results - DFA 1979

Fun right? I know some of the tracks are a bit '04 but whatever.

Have fun with whatever you're doing.

N

Yo, this thing about the "Straight Thuggin' Ghetto Party" is all over campus now. It's in all the newspapers, and the president just sent out a message about a special forum. Perhaps students should read my blog before they go so as to familiarize themselves with the issues. On a not unrelated note, I did a google image search on "Straight Thuggin" today and turned up all these frat boys just hanging out drinking beer. WTF? If you feel so inclined here are some fun google image searches: Baby Tuxedo, Preganant Prom, ummm that's all I got for now.

But seriously, I just sat through all 3 hours plus of D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation. For those of you who don't know, this is a silent film epic about the founding of AmeriKKKa, the first half depicting the Civil War and the second half depicting the takeover of the south by some "Negro empire" that sought to deprive the "white minority" of their Aryan birthright (I'm not making this up). Luckily the KKK are founded to put a stop to all this or else the USA would not exist. So Griffith apparently based the second half on some sort of historical document, I'm not sure what. It's strange cause you're watching it and the KKK show up all the time and it's like, "Oh, shit, the KKK are here!" and then you remember they're supposed to be the good guys and you're like, "good, the KKK will now save the girl."

The thing that's weird about this whole Straight Thuggin' thing is that people are so afraid to say "that was racist." Everyone is all, "I'm not saying what these students did was racist." Um, yeah, it was. People have a problem admitting that they're racist. Let's be clear, if you are white you are probably racist. Get over it. Deal with it, but get over it.

I've been taking pictures of myself in the library bathroom. Everyone's doing it.

Okay, I know I alluded to talking about race and how it's kind of a different--or maybe just more proximate--experience here, but it's just way too big to sort out, and I haven't really yet, and also I just don't feel like getting into it. I will mention this one thing that's going on on campus that's pretty interesting/strange:

So these, mostly white, students in one of the dorms held a party and called it "The Straight Thuggin' Ghetto Party'"--it was cleared with the residence heads and everything. A few other students, who were black, heard about the event and went to check it out but it was already over. Some student standing outside told them it was over and then said something like, "too bad it's over, you would have been the most thuggin' [other accounts say he said "ghetto"] guys there." When asked by the students why this might be, he responded: "I don't know, it just seems like the style you're going for based on the brand names on your clothing."

There's a big hubub about this now with all sorts of different campus organizations getting involved. And there were pictures that surfaced on some sort of online photo album thing of some students at the party wearing "sideways baseball caps, exposed underwear, bandanas" etc. So, omigod, there are actually students on this campus who basically veil their love of hip-hop by donning the 21st century equivalent of blackface. Or rather, there are people who think that whatever version of black culture they can get from TV is ripe for them to try on and wear just as they would neon bracelets to an "80s party" or teased hair and bullet belts to a "metal party." Not that this campus is a special case, I'm sure there are much worse displays of insensitivity across the US (and Canada probably), it's just that kids at the University of Chicago are supposed to be so smart (seriously, that's the reputation).

Totally just lost my train of thought, there were just two huge bangs outside and a puff of smoke, roommates poked heads and bodies out of their respective holes to see what was going on. Fireworks in the alley?

Anyway. Racism. Here's another story. Was over at a classmates house for a party the other night. She is black and a lot of her friends are too. We played this game called "Moods" in which a series of 10 or so cards with words like "embarassed," "annoyed," "seductive" etc are placed on the board. A player picks another card with a sentence on it (like, "That's a swimming pool?" and then has to, after a roll of dice, perform the sentence in a certain mood for other players to guess. One of the moods was "ghetto" (it didn't come with the game, someone had written it on a card in a previous game). Thank you to god that when it was my turn I didn't roll on "ghetto." Can you imagine? I'm sure everyone else was thankful too.

Someone had written ghetto on the Moods card from a previous party. It's clear that black kids play around with "ghetto" just like white kids do. There's a huge difference though. There's a difference between playing with something that's, for the most part, "yours" and appropriating something for play. Same thing goes for this whole "White trash" thing. It's distasteful and embarassing, and, in this case, managed to show that white kids still have the same kind of fun that they did in blackface.

This is getting way too big now, and I want to stop before I get over my head, but I'll just say this. There are tons of different people who are into rap and hiphop who don't feel the need to turn it into some over the top performance of racial stereotype (Hello, Big Primpin').

Okay, that's it. I don't even really feel qualified to fully analyse this, and actually I feel vaguely embarassed about using my blog as a soapbox (i.e. there are no built in filters to keeping me from being too offbase). Anyone who wants to wiegh in, please drop a line, I just wanted to let y'all know what was going on.

Here's a pic from the library. Its a creepy, empty place sometimes, but nice.

Dear International Student:

We had to cancel the event planned for October 26 at 7:00 p.m. "American
Culture 101." I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. We
hope to offer this workshop at another time later in the year.

Best,
Tamara

That's okay, Tamara. I guess I'll have to learn all about the strange customs of your exotic country some other time. This class wasn't for credit anyway, was it?

Sorry for the boring photos as of late, it's just that I feel there should be SOMETHING, but I haven't had time to take anything better. I missed a great shot of Comiskey from the El train last night all lit up (it's SOXTOBER here if you weren't aware). This is the Hyde Park Bank building, as seen from the Metra (like GO transit) platform.

It's really hard to get into school work when you're hung over. All I want to do is sit around and watch movies and eat things that have cheese on them. However, important work has to be done in the name of cinema scholarship.

Speaking of important, I do have some thoughts about race that I've been meaning put down, but I haven't really worked them out yet. Soon though, and under the title, Adventures in Whiteness.

Until then I'll leave you with a memory of this summer that somehow just popped into my head: Graeme and I buy some cans of Yankee Jim and head to Trinity Bellwoods park to hang out before AmyL's art show. The sun is going down and it's just super nice and we're watching this couple playing tennis. We're their only audience, but we're laughing and smoking and shooting the shit. The tennis guy is making all these stupid remarks that "athletes" make like "okay, that's how it's done," "Now we're cooking," and "Good girl!" and basically just being a prick and we're just basically openly laughing at them. Then they finish and they're wallking by us and the girl says to me, "Aren't you the guy that reads Walter Benjamin at Robarts all the time?" That was super cool.

N

Sorry I've been such a downer. I cheered myself up by going to Hyde Park records today. It may be the best place in Hyde Park period. I found what I think is the 2nd A Certain Ratio full length (they also had Suicide and Mars on Ze Records, but they were a bit too $) and a weird 12" sampler that had the Comstat Angels on one side, but Protex (some relatively obscure punk/power pop band from the early 80s) on the other. Score!

Now I'm in the libary totally wasting time on one of the Hyde Park records employee's website. Check out these hilarious prank phone calls!

http://www.derekerdman.com/neux/pranx.htm

N

I don't really have anything to report of interest. Like do you really want to hear about school? I love my classes. I find them fascinating, and feel incredibly lucky to be able to attend the lectures of scholars that I think the best of the best.

Everyone I really love is in Toronto/Ontario. I don't mean to seem pathetic, but really it's true. It's amazing that we live in a culture that, from the poorest to the richest, seems to constantly uproot people from their homes to move them somewhere else.(I know, as if I didn't have a choice) I'm not one to celebrate "cultural heritage" or anything, and but this new "globalized identity" carries it's own set of problems too. Maybe I'm exagerrating. I've only moved from one city to another really.

The only thing really lacking is friends. I think I may have raised my standard for friendship. Or maybe I just never had a standard and now I do. No, scratch that. All of my friends are incredibly special, and moving here has just made me realize it that much more. If you want to experience the same thing, just move to an area full of underage college kids and boring, careerist grad students-- a broad stroke to be sure, but not wholly inaccurate.

That being said, being here has forced me to construct a "virtual identity" which I'm still coming to terms with. I am much more consumed with sending and receiving email messages than ever before. So if I was negligent in returning emails in the past, just watch me now.

good night.

N

Well I *thought* I liked Blue Sky by the Allman Brothers. I seem to remember driving to the beach on Lake Erie with Noah listening to it and loving it. Turns out that, listening to it alone in your room in Chicago the HALF HOUR FUCKING LONG guitar solo gives you a stomach ache. No joke, listening to this track upset my stomach. You think he's gonna finish, and then he just doesn't.

That's it. Sorry, I'm burning the Midnight Oil on a short paper that shouldn't have taken this long.

N

This is from the new Optic Nerve. I have a love/hate relationship with Adrian Tomine. Maybe it's more of a form/content thing. Like I really enjoy his drawing style -- he draws beautiful girls and boys (as above). His stories though, are often incredibly mundane/boring. Or maybe just the characters are. Anyway, I always end up feeling vaguely dissatisfied, like I've entertained myself by ogling beautiful boring, inert people. Maybe it's the total absence of romance in his writing? Anyway, pick up Optic Nerve #10 if you want to torture yourself about this stuff.



More about this weekend. It was super fun to hang out with Olivia and her friend Paul, who is also from Niagara-on-the-Lake. Olivia also went to High School in NOTL, so we all got to swap stories about people we knew, and what a fucked up town it is: monied, rural, racist, provincial, etc. After brunch in Bucktown (aka Yorkville of Chicago) we went to Reckless Records and Quimby's (book/comic store). Chris Ware was doing a public appearance there that day (he is basically responsible for all of Quimby's signage as well) but we didn't stick around. I like his comics, but who cares about meeting him?

I went to the libary today after going to Salonica (I have to post a pic of that place up here soon). Stupidly, I forgot to bring a pen. So I began to wander around campus looking for one. It was a beautiful day, about 14 degrees or something and the "quad" was pretty quiet, just a few students lying out reading. Luckily I ran into someone I knew and they lent me a pen. That was a nice little excursion, it kind of made this whole grad school thing seem kind of nice. I've had some more thoughts about my "philosophy" of grad school, but I'll post them next time. Right now, I've got to finish watching this:

Probably shoudln't do a drunk blog entry. Probably should have stipulated against it in some sort of contract I should have made to myself. Oh well.

Friday I went to the Mountain Goats show. I feel like I was maybe a "bad fan", or even a "bad audience member" in that I basically talked through their set, but WTF I couldn't even fucking hear them. Plus it was too crowded. Best thing: The Empty Bottle has the same Playboy pinball machine that Graeme and I spent many an evening on 3 years ago at Kaz's.

Is there really so many "goldiggin' women," Lyfe and Kanye?

Umm, so I met some real Chicago people tonight, and it was pretty awesome. Went to this place called the Skylark in Pilsen, what seems to be a rapidly gentrifying/gentrified neighbourhood a la Parkdale - except more dead. I can't stress enough how much SPACE there seems to be here. Like everywhere I go, like this bar tonight, it just had so much open space. Also, there's also a lot of empty lots all over the place. It's like some sort of midwest motif. Anyway, really good times. Like Jesse told me, it's hard meeting people and being "on" all the time -- not ungenuine (word?), just "on."

Some more sober thoughts tomorrow and maybe some pictures.

This is my itunes playlist:

Lost Souls-David Banner
New Age-Blitz
The Magnificent Bird Will Rise-Deerhoof
The Hymn for the Cigarettes-Hefner
First Few Desperate Hours -Mountain Goats
Ache -Jawbreaker
Give Me Every Little Thing -The Juan Maclean
There It Go (The Whistle Song)-Juelz Santana
Must Be Nice-Lyfe Jennings
Going to Georgia-The Mountain Goats
George McCrae - I Get Lifted
Parking Lot-Nivea
I'm With You-Ponys
Cold Blooded Old Times-Smog
Blue Sky-Allman Brothers Band
Crying-Aerosmith

Meet you in the McDonald's parking lot.

xo

N

I miss hanging out on the street.

I want to go to a party.

Like a good 40s-on-the-roof-with-firecrackers-and-magic marker on my arm-shit you're bleeding-pay the cab-beer in coat pocket-I hate this place, but where else is there?-this song is okay-my-shirt came off-and-someone-threw it-want to go out for a cigarette?-what-did-she-say?-nachos + pitcher-whose house is this?-No, I don't smoke that anymore, well okay-how-did-I-get-home-and-then-you-came-into-my-room-and-said-you-better-see-this-and-shit-Jesus and Mary Chain Darklands side one-kind of party

Something like this ...

There's this ...

and then more of this ...


I went into Hyde Park records today to see if they had any Mountain Goats tickets. Then I remembered that when I was on friendster last night one of the guys who works there came up on the "local people" part of my page. I was like, oh "that's the guy from the record store," totally forgetting the new "who's viewed me" feature as I'm looking at his profile. So I'm flashing on this as I walk in and cursing myself. What if he saw me "cruising him"? Hard to tell though. It did seem like he was looking at me funny.

So Olivia Wilson is coming to town on Friday and we're going to check out the Mountain Goats. I've never seen them, so I'm excited. Shitty though, cause Wolf Parade are playing the same night. I have to get so much work done before then. ugh.

I've been procrastinating by downloading all kinds of rap.

Also, I stayed up late last night watching Behind Enemy Lines. So good. I must be deeply disturbed to like a movie that so unshamefully valorizes the American Navy and all of its technology -- especially in times like these. I balanced it out by downloading that "George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People" song.

It's good.

I think you'll like it.

N

I have a sleeping-in problem. Somewhat related to this is that I also have a "can't get to sleep" problem. This could in turn be related to the cheap mattress which came with my room. Also involved is the novelty of having a transportable DVD player (the ibook) and a tv series (Lost) that I am addicted to.

I'm trying to compensate by working late at the libary tonight. Unfortunately, I've been somewhat preoccupied trying to find "Bo Knows" t-shirts on ebay.

If you haven't already, check out the new Deadly Snakes song posted on pitchfork. I'm really digging it.

That's it. Keep those dealbreakers coming. The ultimate dealbreaker though, is in the final episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm (fourth season?). Larry is making out with his co-star from The Producers and all of the sudden notices a picture of George Bush on her dresser.

Oh yeah, the girl who played Margaret Yang in Rushmore goes to school here. I think I saw her today. In other celebrity news, did Graeme tell you about Jared Leto? Funny.

This isn't supposed to be a fucking "pop culture" blog, Nathan.

I still haven't figured out if Chicago water is safe to drink.

lates.

N

Here's my "office."

I'm really tired. Last night I went out -- out of Hyde Park. It's easier to live here if you pretend that you're Holden Caulfield and that the hour-long transit ride is really the train from an upstate New York prep school to NYC. I just need a--what kind of coat did he have? Camel skin or something?

Anyway, I went to see Dungen at the Empty Bottle. I met Elise there just as people were leaving, this was around 9:30. We were like WTF? Turns out there was an early show and a late show. On top of that it was $14 to get in. Fucking capitalists. I realize you're from Finland or wherever, but seriously. Some guy, as he was leaving actually said, "This is great, I can totally get to bed early now." I'm not one to proselytize about the "state of rock music" or anything, but I think head office needs to be notified about this.

So we went to this bar called the Rainbo Room instead. Tim Kinsellas was not there (I don't think). Elise and I talked about "dealbreakers." Like when you have a crush on someone and then they totally pull a boner wardrobe move. Example: There's this girl in my classes that I thought was pretty cute, but she was wearing these ridiculous black shoes with huge, thick heels on them. DEALBREAKER! Or when a cute girl carries one of those really skinny purses that can only hold a tampon. DEALBREAKER! Hey, send me your dealbreakers and I'll post them.

After the Rainbo we went to this place called Rodan that was really modern looking but also playing some decent music. Hung out with Rachel (Jesse's friend from High School. Jesse, she had a huge crush on you at the time btw) and some of her friends. Rachel is a producer, no joke, for Jerry Springer. So Lindsey, if you ever visit like you said you would, guess where we're going? Forget Oprah. After Rodan we went to this open-late place called Estelle's. (This is all in the Ukranian village btw, millions of miles from Hyde Park.) Unfortunately, mostly everyone was pretty boring and ugly looking. Fortunately, I was wasted.

Today, I bought some clothes at this vintage store and looked around for some sneakers. Then I went to see Flightplan. This post is getting really long though, huh? I guess I'll fill you in on more later. You have to keep reading my blog though, cause when I get back I don't want to answer questions like, "So how's Chicago?" That kind of catching up would def cramp the hanging out. As my friends, it's your responsibility to keep up with me, got it? good.

Okay, I'm going to watch another episode of Lost and then go to bed.

N

This is just a test. For some reason people haven't been able to view this blog in a while. What up blogger?

So there are a few places in Hyde Park that I frequent quite a bit. None of them are very interesting but I'll give you the deets anyway. First, because I was just there, is Jimmy's Woodlawn Tap. Basically an unofficial "student" watering hole, it's your standard 2 bar-3 room-tv screens playing sports-cigarette machine-in-the-corner type bar. I haven't been to the other 3 bars in Hyde Park (an area, let me remind you, roughly the size of Parkdale) but I haven't heard that there is anything of note going on at any of them. Thursday nights are pretty busy, but nothing to sneeze at. So it's dark and smoky, and occasionally, if a bartender named Tracy is working, they play some good tunes (she played the Slits the other night. Also, she asked one of my classmates if I was gay, and he said, "No, he's Canadian.") Anyway, for better or for worse (and I haven't decided on this yet) students generally show up in small packs. You've got your GSBs (Graduate Student in Business) and your Divinity School students (there are like four or five Divinity schools in the area and/or attached to the University, your MAPS (Master's in Policy and Social something or other), and random groups of shrill girls, and shaggy guys. Being a small program, Cinema Studies doesn't really have much of a presence, but we're there a lot. It's kind of nice to see familiar faces all the time. It's no Queenshead on a Thursday night though. Or whatever.

Tonight I met Matt and Inga there, two of my classmates and very excellent people in their own right. We talked about our futures in the academic world and the kinds of social worlds we would be entering into, and relationships, and the cycles of anxiety we would have to endure. I'm not sure if I've ever told you this, but while I love researching, watching, and writing about film, there are many aspects of academia that really don't blow my skirt up. Like, while I've met a lot of nice and great people, most graduate students are not people I'd choose to associate with in everyday life. For one thing, it's a pretty solitary existence -- researching and writing things by yourself all of the time. It can make people kind of bananas. Besides, some people are just plain fucking annoying. Someone actually said the other night, in casual conversation at a party: "I'm so post-Foucault." I almost barfed.

The thing I miss about Toronto is how, in my experience, there was school and there was the nieghbourhood. And in the nieghbourhood there might be other students or "artists" or whomever, and everyone just did their thing and lived (for the most part) harmoniously. I guess what I'm alluding to is "community." Community gets stifling to be sure, but it's a whole lot better than "College." But basically, that's what I signed up for: to live in a nieghbourhood of Chicago that is basically a college town. Also, there's no smells here. You know what I mean?

Whatever.

I want to tell you about a great record store here called Hyde Park Records where I've bought some great records and am trying to "pick up" friends, but I'll save that for next time when I have some pics. For now, here some pictures of the university.

yours,
N

Here are some pictures in my room. On the one hand kind of boring, but doesn't everyone like seeing pictures of other people's rooms? Aren't there Japanese magazines that do that quite a bit?






Coming soon: pictures of the restaurant I go to almost everyday.

yours,
N

Holed up in my room tonight to do some work, but ended up watching Back to the Future in its entirety. (I only meant to watch the first 15 minutes.) Later, I was watching some of the deleted scenes and they seemed really familiar. And then I thought, were these so-called "deleted" scenes in the theatrical release? There's this one "deleted" scene where Marty confesses he's a bit nervous about hitting on his mom for the purposes of staging George's heroic entrance and he says: "You know this is the kind of thing that could screw me up permanently. What if I end up ... gay?" Shit. In the commentary for the deleted scenes, writer/producer Bob Gale explains "Basically, you'll see, we're just sort of stopping the movie for some jokes. The jokes are funny but they're not funny enough to slow the pace of the movie down." Sure, Bob. That's a really good explanation for the deletion of a bad homo joke. But again, watching the rest of these scenes, I seemed to recognize them. Is it possible that these "deleted" scenes were actually just deleted for the VHS release and were actually *in* the theatrical release?

These are the questions you have to start asking at the Ph.d. level.

Also, the DVD version doesn't have the "To Be Continued?" text before the credits roll. WTF?

I need Matt Voynovich and Matt McPetrie on this.

So things seem to be up and running on this "web log." Hope you all are doing well. I got an ibook the other day and am slowly but surely learning how to use it. Today I put a fresh coat of wax on it and took it out to the beach so I could really open her up. Just kidding, but it is hard not to touch this fucking thing all the time with all its glowing lights and whistles. It's like something out of THX 1138 or something.

Needless to say I've been fulfilling my years' long dream of being able to download music. I spent my Saturday night drinking Heineken Dark and downloading Jawbreaker and Pretty Tony songs. Then I watched Bourne Supremacy. And you know what? It was really fucking fun. Can you post mp3s on this kind of blog? if so, I'm going to try to fiind out how.

Spending time with myself has its ups and downs though. I become really self-conscious a lot of the time, especially if I'm in a part of town where I really don't know where I'm going. Like yesterday, I was on Belmont Ave. looking for some sneakers and I couldn't decide whether to hang out there for awhile and get something to eat, or just leave. But while I'm deciding this I have to keep on moving and for some reason that's difficult, so I just end up walking in circles, up and down this street. It's weird, I think that because I grew up in a small town I'm hyper-aware of being identified as non-urban--even after living in a city for 3.5 years. What I keep on forgetting is that no one in a city gives a shit what you do, and if you walk down a street four fucking times no one notices. Only people in a small town notice that kind of stuff.

Talk to you soon.