hullo hullo

I wonder if you guys still read this often. I miss you!

Here's something I just came across, pretty cool I think (especially the sticky bot thing):

http://discovermagazine.com/2008/aug/04-3-robots-that-move-just-like-animals?source=mag

WHEN GREAT MINDS COME TOGETHER

Please, excuse the pretension of the title.

It's been so long since we've had a post. Summer can't have you that busy. (Well, maybe, we are after all TASPers, who above all, are busy getting some.)

But, there is finally an occasion this summer that demands a blog post: Katlin and Julieta are in the same place for the first time since August 2007! There have been many such reunions among all of us but this too-short TASPer frolic in it's final moments before we had to say goodbye brought forth a brilliant plan. So here goes:

We've always talked about TASP reunions (we mean all of 34 of us as the factotos don't get out of this one) but along with the dream of having one hell of a swinging TASPer rendezvous (according to spell check this is one word in English--wth?) was the reality of how impossible it would be to get so many people in one place at the same time. So, as we (J & K) drove around the parking lot where we waited for Julieta's aunt to come pick her up, we began to rattle on about a road trip. We started thinking about what the best drive would be and Katlin said something about driving across the United States. And then Julieta said something like "I want to go to New England too. And we should visit the Harvard-Yale-MIT kids." And then friends, it turned into an all out pick-up-every-TASPer-and-factotum road trip. Oh yeah. We would buy the bio-diesel bus off this guy Julieta knows who pretty much drives around the US running on what he gets from McDonald's greasiest deep frying baskets. We would start in Texas (because I said so...I guess. It seems like as good as any place to start at wait no, in Florida so that we get Niko). And head west. Pick up Big Mac and Linda in Tempe (if they were not at school of course, in which case maybe we could chill with their parents). Keep heading west. Break Dylan out of Deep Springs and forced gofer-slaughtering by busting through the gates (they must have gates, right? how else would anyone stay??)and sweeping him into our crazy-ass bus. Keep heading west hit up the rest of Cali getting everyone at Stanford and Berkley...maybe work on the tan at the beach--not that Julieta needs one--and go to Tijuana one night to get drunk and hopefully not killed). Um, drive east. MIDWEST TIME!! And we wouldn't go through Iowa for no reason--Brian Sherwin, check! Next pick up everyone at UChicago (yes, we pick Mac up twice dammit) and stir up a storm to rival the Blues Brother's police car chase. Keep heading east. And northish (we aren't exactly looking at a map this moment). Visit the ivies and thumb our noses at the rich brats clad in Lacoste and Ralph Lauren (actually we don't know what the hell they wear but whatever)and pick up about a third of the missing TASPers and make picking up Ibrahim really fast because there is more on NYC to come. Next reunite the original rule-breaking uber-exclusive couple (Chanel and Joe! We'd probably wouldn't have to go to both Rochester and Syracuse since I imagine they would already be reunited). At this point we should have all TASPers. We'd do this circut so that somehow we'd get to Cornell last (wait no, Olivia would be the last one!). And bust into the House by way of the kitchen pretending to be rowdy frat boys and drunken sorority girls and then refuse to leave until we had the house to ourselves. What exactly we do there is up to us. But two things are mandatory: trip to Collgetown Bagels and sunset at the peace sign--and this time, hell, we might accept that joint. After getting bored in Ithaca...onto NYC! We should just get stuck in traffic in the city and have a party raging inside the bus all night long. Finally drive all the way down to Miami and party the night away in the land of Valentine and maybe, if we're feeling daring visit Havana (although maybe V Fernandez would disapprove). And then it would be goodbyes and most likely terrible hangovers and then some tears and many, many facebook albums.

WE LOVE YOU! YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN!

Katlin & Julieta

(this is posted from Julieta's account because Katlin is having issues with posting on her account)

P.S. Katlin starts West Point on June 29th. Send her letters of encouragement (yes letters, as she has no internet access until Aug. 15th) at the address posted on facebook.

P.P.S. Julieta will be in Paris starting July 1st for about a month. If you are in Europe get your ass down to the city of lights and home of the triplets of Bellville to see her.

P.P.P.S. And if you want postcards from France post your address!

It was a dark and stormy night...

and then Laura Kling came to Chicago and made the sun come out! (This was strangely accurate) [I observed the same, too, myself! Almost uncanny...]

So today was the U Chicago spring festival, the one with lots of free popcorn and cotton candy and giant hamster balls (People tried to run into each other in them. It was sort of ridiculous.) and a mechanical bull and Broken Social Scene and LOTS of hipsters. 

So many hipsters.

Maybe too many hipsters. [This and the previous statements are not even invalid. Also hipster-crowding-into-a-vent-in-the-library was a Scav Hunt item!]

(Actually, there were less hipsters than usual for UChi, which was still more than usual for Yale. The hipster stomping ground in front of Cobb was quite forlorn. But of course Laura didn't know that until we told her.)

Definitely too many pairs of salmon-colored pants. (And by 'too many' Laura actually means two. Which, admittedly, is two too many.) 

Definitely not enough TASPers. Since we miss you. (This,too, is accurate.) [Mm-hmm! Emphatically. We send you transcendental hugs.]

Anyway, we met one of Mac's friends. We're pretty sure he's a serial killer. He was hanging out in the library during the festival, when he should've been running through the inflatable obstacle course (or riding the plastic bull). 

Mac says he's not a real friend of his. That he's unsavory. (Mac knows. He's tasted him.)

So then we went to Chinatown and bought a couple of wooden swords (and had an epic sword fight.) [with a weird straw Asian-looking hat] Then we were obvious tourists. (Arguably, we were obvious tourists from the moment we bought the swords. Or, we were awesome. Probably not.) [But probably so.]

Apparently one time, for the university's scavenger hunt, some kids built a working nuclear reactor (in a 2005 TASPer's room.) [Only a trivial distance away as we speak right now!]

They didn't win.

[Humbert Humbert was married to some gal for some 50 days, says Mac.]

You have to guess who's who. Hint: One of the UChicago TASPers is really, really lazy. Hint: It's clearly not Kim or Rachel. Hint: It's clearly also not Laura. Clearly.

Krzysztof

I was trying to text Mac Krumpak's name, and after I entered "kr" the phone autocompleted to "krzysztof." This is clearly not what I meant. Oh my gosh.

Happy Birthday, V.N.

So it's Nabokov's birthday today. The 23rd, that is. 110 today. 100 years younger than A. Pushkin and officially 335 years younger than Shakes. Some more trivia about V.N.-Day: April 23rd is the major feast day of St. George; 1616, Cervantes and Shakespeare die; 1858, the beginning of the end for classical wave physics; 1928, cocktail-drinking teetotalers everywhere gear up; 1968, Columbia University is shut down for gym maintenance; 1982, citizens of Key West, Fla. bored with rest of country; 1988, the moon finally comes back; 2009, Mac desperately avoids anything remotely resembling work.

Judith Butler

Is here.  Right now.  At Yale.  Sadly, Charlie is not.  But Laura and I are!  And we're liveblogging it!  For you!

4:08:  Howard Bloch is talking extensively about Naomi someone-or-other.  We don't know who she is.  Apparently she's dead.  Where's Judy?  Oh, never mind, apparently Judith's here to honour Naomi someone-or-other.  Binary oppositions are being upset as we speak.  Well, type.  Howard Bloch is speaking.  Apparently it was Naomi's way to take deep breaths and sigh while complaining about Judith Butler.  This is a rather strange introduction. –d

4:10:  He's talking about Gender Trouble and Bodies That Matter.  And everything else she wrote.  One of the things he admires most about Judith Butler is that she is unpredictable.  This may be solely because it's so difficult to understand what she's talking about.  He didn't say that last bit. –d

4:12:  OMGWTFJB!!!!!

4:13:  Naomi's last name is Shore.  Shaw?  Apparently she was a strong feminist thinker.  The fact that neither of us knows her last name seemingly means we are not strong feminist readers.  Eve Sedgwick just died?  What?  Dammit.  -d

4:17:  So far she's actually a very clear, concise speaker.  This is surprising and gratifying.  Unpredictable, even.  Howard Bloch was right!  -d

4:19: Someone grumped about the typing. We are pursuing other methods of liveblogging. I will handwrite this blog if I have to. The back row will not get us down. –l

4:22: So—you guys know how certain smells can be deeply connected to long-lost memories?

Or, to choose a more canonical example, you know the Proustian madeleines?  Judith Butler's rhetoric is that.  -l

[Dom says: Smelly? Judith Butler's rhetoric is smelly?]

4:24: I mean, crazily.  Even the spacing out for a minute, then realizing I have no idea who she's quoting, or what it's supposed to support, or what the role of psychoanalysis is in this shifting stage of gender identity.  Because I really have no idea.  It seems like even Judith Butler doesn't know.  -l

4:25:  We are now both writing in notebooks.  This reminds me of note-based communication during SCT lectures.  Along with the fact that she's now talking about shame - oh, Bruce Robbins! - I am now worried that I'm completely instrumentalizing this lecture in order to be all nostalgic about TASP.  Oh well! -d

4:28:  That said, I actually understand some of what she's talking about now.  Or at least I think I do. -d

4:29:  I have begun wondering about the role of discourse as a form of conceptual art.  Emily Chertoff, you should know what I'm talking about. -l

4:30:  Dom doesn't know what I'm talking about.  One time (probably much more that one time), Emily Chertoff and I talked about doing PubSpeaks/a performance for the talent show based on Text, Context, Subtext, Pretext.  It has nothing to do with Said.  Maybe a little to do with Said.  But mostly it has to do with the fact that I don't need to focus on what Judy's saying about subject and structure for me to get a lot out of this lecture. -l

4:31:  Laura lies.  I have a vague idea of what I think she might be talking about.  But I'm not positive.  Basically it seems like she's just saying that there's a certain aesthetic delight in this absurd torrent of words which has very little to do with their meaning.  Or at least to do with the meaning with which she's trying to invest them.  I'm not sure words can be thought of aesthetically without their meanings playing a role.  I'm going to stop writing about this now. -d

4:34:  But it has so much to do with their meaning.  I mean, ish. -l

4:35:  Besides, I wonder what she expects.  Honestly. -l

4:36:  Every time she refers to an "outmoded form of seduction" I imagine Carlos Adolfo Dominguez, smelling like cheap aftershave, leering at her in a back alley. -d

4:37:  I hope I never encounter a form of seduction that outmoded. -l

4:38:  Seriously, Sedgwick is dead?  I mean, shit. -d

4:39:  I think it's illegal to employ forms of impingement upon a child.  Unless they're purely linguistic. -d

4:39:  Judith Butler, radical lawbreaker. -l

4:40:  Just imagine the movie - Judy on the Run.  Dom, what's the tagline? -l

4:41:  "When you get in Gender Trouble, only your corpse will be a Body That Matters!" -d

4:42:  Or maybe "Structuralist Oedipal Subject instinct exogenist seduction matter structure hegemonic of that end quote"? -l

4:45:  How often do famous academics give lectures consisting only of summaries of other peoples' less well-known theories?  First Spivak on Gramsci, now Judy on Laplanche. -d

4:42:  The number of women I've seen at this lecture wearing some combination of black coats, flowing dark hair, glasses, and vaguely ethnic-looking scarves is staggering.  I wonder if they smoke cloves. -d

4:44:  Actually, I really like looking at who's in the audience.  It's standing room only.  There are many girls with shorter hair than mine.  I see six college-age guys in our part of the balcony. -l

4:46:  Including me? -d

4:46:  I think so.  I don't want to gawk too much to look around.  Point being, there are very few. -l

4:47:  It probably goes against the spirit of the lecture that we're breaking down the audience according to which side of the gender binary they fall into.  Oh well! -d

4:48:  Maybe I like being heteronormative. -l

4:49:  Maybe hetero-norms like being you!  Ha.  (In Soviet Russia...) -d

4:49:  She just mentioned a current event - Gay/Lesbian parenting in France.  She is applying her theory to the real world.  Maybe.  She is still talking about messaging, desire, and the Other. -l

4:52:  Is it ever the theorists' job to seriously examine how parent-child relationships actually work, or do they stick to theory and leave practice to psychologists?  Also, I wonder to what extent these ideas she's talking about could be translated into Bardi. -l

4:53:  If one of the logocentric problems of Western discourse is the privileging of speech over writing, why did Derrida ever give lectures? -d

4:54:  I think that the lit majors around us disapprove of the fact that we're being flippant during a J-But lecture. -d

4:55:  I'm just newly glad I'm not majoring in theory. -l

4:56:  I'm majoring in Soviet film and mass-produced Marxist art!  The fact that this isn't actually a major does not in any way deter me in this. -d

So: To sum:

Dom likes bragging about his major.

Much love!

—Laura and Dom

Saw The House For The First Time...

My original intent re: revisiting the House was to wait until someone came to visit Cornell so that I could see it with them, but I'd long forgotten exactly where it is on campus (and most people here have absolutely no idea what the Telluride Association is), and so accidentally stumbled upon it a few nights ago ("stumble" here being used more literally than I would have liked to think at the time).

It was actually kind of funny, because I don't think any of us were quite aware of this, but the Telluride House is right on one of the main frat rows at Cornell. Those beautiful old buildings that surround the House aren't dorms -- they're frat houses, and they house some of the sketchier Cornell frats to be sure. I mean, right across the street from it is one of the more reputable frats in that area that, nevertheless, had a party that night that started at 10, was completely filled by 10:15, had the campus police waiting outside of it by 11, and was closed down by 1. And there was the placid Telluride House, where I can imagine that people were either working or keeping their binge drinking to themselves.

It's actually more fitting that the TA is there than I'd like to pretend, to be honest. Cornell consists of two types of undergrads: Type 1: brilliant slackers; Type 2: ambitious, hardworking dumbasses. While many frat boys and sorrority girls do keep the stereotype alive, I've met an awful lot of them who fit into Type 1 and who filtered into the frats so they wouldn't die of boredom, more or less. Because they're smart enough to coast into (and out of) Cornell, they're also smart enough to know when it's socially desireable to play dumb. You can't fault them for choosing people over some abstract pursuit of... something.

This is getting rambling, but my point was mostly that I was at the Telluride House the other day, and thought of you all.