{"id":116,"date":"2012-11-26T22:58:19","date_gmt":"2012-11-27T04:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/?p=116"},"modified":"2012-12-08T15:28:08","modified_gmt":"2012-12-08T21:28:08","slug":"pygmalion-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/?p=116","title":{"rendered":"pygmalion part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

“‘Don\u2019t be a little bitch with your chit chat just show me where your dick\u2019s at.’<\/em><\/p>\n

Wait a minute\u2026 you don\u2019t know where my dick\u2019s at? \u00a0I don\u2019t mind anyone assuming that one.\u00a0 ‘I often find myself debating the meaning of \u201cgood\u201d as if destined to protect some discernibly correct answer from bastard philosophies with my own secondhand ideas\u2026 as if I have some insight reliant on something other than the words we already share.\u00a0 Language is intrinsic to society, but the more words become our daily bread, the greater the monopoly they have on our expression.\u00a0 The more words contain our thoughts, the less society is intrinsic to them. Experiences are more significant than the words with which I think my thoughts, and yet I cannot apply them as succinctly without them.\u00a0 Words are supposed to be our tools, not the other way around.\u00a0 Our ideas are held captive by the trappings of the end user\u2019s perspective concerning the assumed intent, word choice, and subjective individual context, so, in a way, you already know what I\u2019m going to say, which I realize as I say it anyway…’ so fuck yeah\u2026 I appreciate a fucking dick check, but I need some fuckin\u2019 chit chat, too.<\/em><\/p>\n

‘I am whatever you say I am.\u00a0 If I wasn\u2019t, then why would I say I am?’<\/em>\u201d Click<\/em><\/p>\n

I live in St. Louis, and I\u2019m driving home to Champaign-Urbana, radio blaring\u2026.\u00a0 I like it loud\u2014louder than my thoughts anyhow.\u00a0 I used to hate the radio when I believed in evil.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been doin\u2019 this thing where I listen to whatever top 40 hit, find a line of any discernible thoughtfulness, crass is good\u2014funny at least\u2026 then record myself reading the line (in this case, penned by Ke$ha) followed by some Mark Richard Altman rants\u2026 manufacturing my memory as I perform, even for myself.\u00a0 I feel like Krang worrying his body vessel might be schizophrenic.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

INT. GASTROPUB – NIGHT<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cChina Girl is a great fuckin\u2019 song, but Iggy\u2019s kicks the shit outta Bowie\u2019s.\u201d
\n\u201cWhat?!\u00a0 How can you say that that\u2019s fucked!\u201d
\n\u201cBowie\u2019s great, fuck off\u2026 but listen to Iggy grrroowll<\/em>\u2026 makes Bowie sound like Tom Cruise!\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hindsight\u2019s 20\/20\u2026 but it\u2019s true. \u00a0I realize a certain subtle arrested development in my relative world\u2014I can see it now anyhow. \u00a0It\u2019s not that absurd, the contrarian reaction to social norms\u2014flipside of the same coin.\u00a0 Watching people\u2026 unassuming acquaintances unfamiliar with either version of China Girl<\/em> clamber to have an opinion (seconds away from ossified fact) sure to spark a domino effect of unadulterated subsets of future human interaction.\u00a0 It\u2019s all inferred, but one side inevitably ingratiates more so than the other, rendering the debate symbolic of something larger than a mere preference.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s the duck-fat pomme frites on one plate or the chips and salsa on the other… are you intrigued?\u00a0 Offended?\u00a0 Does something feel condescending? \u00a0They\u2019re just fuckin\u2019 fries, man\u2026. \u00a0I once wore a battle axe earring with a fake ruby in the handle, chain-linked to an ear cuff.\u00a0 Okay, I didn\u2019t, but I should\u2019ve and I could\u2019ve.\u00a0 Whatever it may be, amidst those indecisive moments of incrementally heightened social anxiety, environmental cues feed a subjective yet decisive \u201ccool\u201d that drives us in a momentary and anecdotal fashion day to day and to varying degrees, but ultimately building a broader arc of a lifetime\u2014which begs the question to me, is \u201ccool\u201d actually arbitrary regardless of its conditional birth?\u00a0 It\u2019s Sodom vs. Gomorrah, and\u2026 wait, did they fight?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing\u2026 It\u2019s okay, it’s endearing hopefully.\u00a0 Fffffllerby flerby\u2026 derby flurby fucky\u2026. \u00a0Ok.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing. \u00a0Pygmalion Music Festival 2012\u2026 what the fuck is interesting about another fucking wanna be music review?\u00a0 Dinosaur, Jr., Grizzly Bear, Willis Earl Beal\u2026 Cloud Nothings\u2026 Willis?\u00a0 Sure\u2026 Best Coast\u2026. I dig the California-hugging bear \u2026 the map. \u00a0I was once congratulated for correctly identifying the Western Hemisphere on a globe\u2026 in high school\u2026. That\u2019s fucked up.\u00a0 Ohh, St. Louis, St. Louis. \u00a0Does anything French come to mind when I say St. Louis?\u00a0 How \u2018bout Illinois? \u00a0What if you buy a shirt from a second-hand shop, are you supposed to feel bad for cutting off the sleeves?<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 Click<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

——– $ * $ * $ * $ * $ * $ * $ ——–<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My reasons for driving home:<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 visit my grandma in the hospital; she\u2019s 97 and just broke her hip
\n2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 attend the Pygmalion Music Festival and write critical piece
\n3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 another day in pursuit of familial connection<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Driving home on I-55, the Pink Elephant always gets me\u2014hypnotically coaxing me westward, \u201cSlow down,\u201d its big pink form floating ominously above the horizon for 5 turgid seconds.\u00a0 \u201cAt least long enough to remember what hemisphere you\u2019re in,\u201d I think I said aloud.\u00a0 I daydream constantly of Route 66. \u00a0Why not turn around?\u00a0 Torn from its reprieving tank of decisiveness, my conflicted lobster brain boils in conflicted anxiety, nerves dance, flash frying… I\u2019ll drink to that! \u00a0Sauvignon Blanc, please, sir\u2026 Huh-hughng! New Zealand lemongrass!\u2026 sheeps and shit!\u00a0 My mind racing towards Tulsa behind me, I exit east on I-72, shit-bound instead, my freewill barking like a damn dog cursing oil pumps.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Where is the line between selfishness and self-respect??<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The mixing pot is starting to burn, and I want to shoot it\u2026. \u00a02 minutes and 50 seconds or 2 minutes and 42 seconds or 3 minutes or\u2014 good doesn\u2019t mean shit when you can decide what to like… we don\u2019t know any better.\u00a0 But you can\u2019t comment on coexistence while uncompromisingly disregarding it.\u00a0 The trappings exist in dissent no less.\u00a0 Americana makes a lot more sense now that Wilco has thrown some kraut in the stew.\u00a0 These are savage lands according to the Yankees.\u00a0 Where neither British nor Spanish fully evicted the Cajun orphans, the US overshadows with a Lewis and Clark history no less significant.\u00a0 There\u2019s a great pride in stillness here\u2026 a pride dripping with shamefulness impervious but agreeable to logic.\u00a0 It\u2019s not showy, especially when it wants to be.\u00a0 With Mother Road romance in tow, I\u2019ve got some braunschweiger to eat.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cOkay\u2026 The Pygmalion Festival is not named after George Bernard Shaw\u2019s play but the third album of the British shoegazers, Slowdive. \u00a0It\u2019s a boutique festival in a town too self-effacing to call much of anything boutique and plenty enough aware to stage a slew of worldly rockers.\u00a0 It\u2019s a 3-day festival staged throughout Champaign-Urbana in mid-sized venues, coffee shops, art galleries, and outside in the streets and parking lots of antiquated city blocks.\u00a0 It\u2019s appropriately affordable, too, for a small-ish Big Ten college town with as much popped-collar dicking as idiosyncratic Midwesternism to frame a pseudo-slacker intellectual culture.\u00a0 Big shit actually happens here\u2026 more than you might expect.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 Click<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All of a beginning I can muster while driving, I\u2019m wondering what to watch on History once I arrive home\u2026 something to inspire a proactive state in my weekend sanctuary… some niche subcultural something slapped together with provocative irreverence and food or whatever\u2026 a soundtrack by some band from somewhere like Tashkent called Nietzsche\u2019s Dick that SPIN calls \u201c\u2026if Sepultura met Sigur Ros on the Silk Road for pastoral jams and yak\u201d \u2026 food\u2026 I don\u2019t know who Slowdive is or was, but I find it comforting.\u00a0 Rock and roll is the unknown pleasure of everything we\u2019ve yet to understand or at the very least, the accompaniment to figuring it out… depending how deeply you find yourself enmeshed.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be going to see one of my favorite bands tomorrow.\u00a0 HUM.\u00a0 In an instant, they once proved to me that the world might not be so big.\u00a0 They\u2019re on instead of Sleigh Bells\u2026 dude broke his hand or somethin’.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1\/4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“‘Don\u2019t be a little bitch with your chit chat just show me where your dick\u2019s at.’ Wait a minute\u2026 you don\u2019t know where my dick\u2019s at? \u00a0I don\u2019t mind anyone assuming that one.\u00a0 ‘I often find myself debating the meaning … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,25,27,23,28,29,24],"class_list":["post-116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iggy-aufderheide","tag-art-critique","tag-champaign-urbana","tag-hum","tag-keha","tag-pygmalion","tag-pygmalion-music-festival","tag-rock-criticism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions\/118"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}